The Bad Boy Computer Programmer At Wattpad

PING (Part 1)

**Ian--Wattpad Headquarters**

Ian typed the link Mouth sent him earlier into the address bar on his browser and pressed enter. A book from Amanda's Wattpad profile titled, There's This Engineer At Wattpad popped up on his screen. "What's this?"

"An open letter--," Sloth began.

Mouth cut Sloth's sentence off with a squeal and giggle. "To a secret crush! Someone from here--in the engineering department!"

"Who?" Ian asked.

"Read it," Sloth instructed.

Ian adjusted his glasses and dove straight into Amanda's letter, a note beginning with a few apologetic sentences. He stopped when he got to a part highlighted in italics. Reading her words out loud, Ian said, "The software that makes me who I am says you're the one who wrote its code?"

Sloth chuckled. "Dude, keep reading. It gets better."

As Ian read quietly to himself, the silence in the room seemed to shift Mouth's focus from mysterious online crushes to Crocs. "She likes Crocs and socks."

Sloth furrowed his brows and glanced over Ian's shoulder at the monitor. "Where the fuck did she say that?"

"Not Yoda," Mouth clarified. "Zo! Zo said she loves Crocs and socks. In The Bag was a story that honored people's love for socks and comfortable footwear." Mouth pushed off Ian's desk and rolled back to his work station like a sad cowboy wheeling off into the shun-set. "Clearly someone at Wattpad doesn't think very highly of me--that's why it got deleted."

Ian, still focused on Amanda's letter, stared at his monitor with his mouth gaped open. He gently tapped his finger on his mouse as though counting every single one of her 500 words. "Who is she writing this to?"

Sloth slapped Ian's shoulder a couple times with this hand, then retreated while seated back to his own work station with a couple kicks and glides.

Ian swiveled around to face Mouth, now sitting behind his computer. Pointing at his monitor, Ian asked, "Who is she writing about?"

"The real question here is--who deleted my story about Zo?" Mouth questioned. "Was it one of you?"

"Why would we delete your story?" Sloth asked as he typed on his keyboard.

With elbows on his desk, Mouth's face sank into his hands. "Someone at headquarters must think I'm a total douche. Why else would it get deleted? I didn't break any guidelines. I'm the one that fixes the bugs on the guidelines page for Christ's sake!"

Ian returned his attention back to Amanda's letter on his screen and reread her words--his wrist moving the mouse back and forth as if playing a strange game of ping pong with the cursor. Is she writing about me?

Sloth stopped typing and looked up at Mouth. A snicker escaped his lips. "Bro, it's not a big deal. Everyone thinks you're a douche."

With elbows still on his desk and palms pressed into his eye sockets, Mouth said, "I was just trying to be funny."

Sloth's face softened. "Dude--this could be a good thing. A cult classic thing. The ultimate honor for any story is to become a cult classic--and it can't do that properly unless there's a little controversy attached to it."

Mouth lifted his head. "That's true." He seemed to toss around Sloth's idea for a moment before he added, "I've always wanted my name attached to a cult classic."

Ian pushed off his desk with his mouse hand and swiveled around to face Mouth. "And Microsoft's a sponsor. They were probably hypersensitive about keeping Zo as drama-free as possible."

Mouth nodded. "That's legit." He turned to face Sloth. "Can you imagine if In The Bag become a cult classic?"

Ian chuckled and turned back to face his computer. His eyes immediately snapped to the position where he left the cursor. Apparently, when he turned to face Mouth seconds earlier, he unknowingly clicked the mouse button. As a result, he unintentionally liked Amanda's open letter.

A solid orange star now appeared on the screen. The "like" had been made official. A notification would be sent to Amanda to let her know who appreciated her honest declaration of love.

"No, no, no!" Ian clicked frantically with the mouse around the screen, searching for an undo function. He grabbed his hair with his fists. "How do I reverse this?"

TO BE CONTINUED...

Mouth's Zo story got deleted--for real. I'm not sure why. However, it seemed too weird to have my fictional character send an actual bug report to the real life version of himself, so Mouth and I decided to "Let It Go." I know I'm starting to get attached to my characters when I legitimately felt bad for the guy. Hahaha.