Page 53 of Let's Get Textual

“Did you?”

“Not a damn clue.”

“What do you do now?”

His lips lift again as he reaches into his back pocket. Pulling out a worn leather wallet, he slides out a business card and hands it over.

I laugh as soon as I read it.

“Zach Hastings, Nerd Wrangler.”

“Check us out, learning things about each other.” He pauses and his face scrunches up in concentration. Then he shakes his head and mutters something.

“What?”

“I was going to saywinkbut then I thought maybe I should just wink. Then I deemed it all stupid. It’s taking me a little while to grow accustomed to not having to text everything. Like, I want to pull my phone out right now and send you a text of my next thoughts.”

“Don’t do that. It’s creepy.

“I know. Woe is me.”

I chuckle and scan the rest of his card. “You design apps?”

“I do, and wrangle the other nerds together and make sure they’re getting their work done, hence the awesome title.”

“What kind of apps do you work on?”

“Lots of kinds. Fashion, coupons, games—you name it, we do it.”

“How’d you become an app developer?”

“I was kind of a nerd in high school.”

I squint, trying to see it. “You’re lying.”

“What? Nerds can’t be devilishly handsome with pert asses and chiseled features?”

“You are unbelievably modest too.”

“I know.” This time he does wink and I roll my eyes.

“It’s surprising, is all. You don’t, ya know, seem the type.”

“Well, guilty as charged. I began studying computers early on in life and the apps thing was a result of that.”

“What was the first app you created?”

Zach grimaces. “I’ll sound like a tool.”

“Tell me anyway.”

“I created this…well, in its basic form, it was a dating app for assholes. You could rate people on their looks and how dateable they were.” He shakes his head, and I can tell he’s still upset with himself after all these years. “It was such a shitty thing to do and I regretted it the moment it was live. I’m not even surewhyI did it. I wasn’t the hottest guy around, had no business making that app. I had self-esteem issues out the ass, so why I believed it would be okay to make it easy for kids to put each other down is beyond me.”

He takes a drink and shrugs. “Anyway, it took a week before word reached the principal. I was in serious trouble, suspended for a week, but I deserved worse. I can’t even count the number of times I witnessed a student crying over their ratings, the number of people who stopped eating in the cafeteria, or the dirty looks I received. The app haunted me for months and I felt so shitty about it.” He hangs his head. “It was a stupid, juvenile thing to do.”

“Did you learn from your mistake?”

“And then some. I created a club that’s still thriving today once I returned to school. It took weeks for people to see I was serious about it, that it wasn’t a gimmick. I truly felt horrible about the animosity I created in the school.”

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