Chapter 11: New Energy
A few days had passed since Xavier first walked into Riverside University.
He hadn’t gone back since his one-day return. His reasons were valid enough — at least to him. The end goal of school was money. Employment. Security. He was already building all three from his apartment desk before 10AM every day.
He checked his balance before getting out of bed.
[ REBATE SYSTEM ]
Daily Cap Reset
[ New Rebate Cycle Active ]
[ Net Balance: $93,840.00 ]
Almost a hundred thousand, he thought. From $520. In under two weeks.
He stared at the ceiling for a moment letting that sit properly.
In my previous life I spent three years delivering pizzas and never crossed $8,000 in savings. Three years. He sat up.
This system is genuinely criminal.
His phone buzzed.
[BLING]
Amira: Hey you good? Checking up on you, still alive? Thought you’d come back to school and just dropout permanently lol
Xavier looked at the message for a moment.
Someone checking if I’m alive.
It was such a small thing. The kind of thing normal people got from normal people all the time without thinking about it. In his previous life his fiancée had gone clubbing three weekends in a row without sending a single message to check where he was. Except the occasional ones he got from his mum.
He typed back.
Xavier: was handling some things. fully resuming today actually
Amira: Okay. I’ll believe it when I see it
Xavier: give me two hours
Amira: sure sure
He set the phone down and got up.
Today’s going to be interesting, he thought. I can feel it.
He showered, opened his wardrobe — the new wardrobe — and picked out a clean cream coloured shirt, dark trousers and the white sneakers. Checked himself in the mirror.
Good enough.
He grabbed his bag and headed out.
Mama Elizabeth was at the door with a covered plate before he could reach the exit.
"Are you hungry?."
"I’ll grab something on campus—"what’s the problem with this woman?.
The look she gave him ended that sentence.
Xavier ate standing up in the hallway, which she also had opinions about but chose not to voice since she was already winning the larger argument.
"You’re going back today," she said.
"Yes."
"Good." She took the empty plate back. "A young man sitting in a room all day is a young man wasting something."
Debatable, Xavier thought, but said nothing.
He headed out into the morning.
The cab dropped him at the east gate at half past nine.
He walked through the campus with his hands in his pockets and his bag on one shoulder no urgency, no performance, just moving like someone who belonged exactly where he was.
The reactions were subtle but consistent.
A glance that held slightly too long. A conversation that paused for half a second as he passed. Nothing dramatic just the quiet recalibration that happened when someone didn’t fit the picture people had filed them under.
Different energy, he thought. Same campus.
He found the Food and Nutrition building, climbed the stairs, and pushed into the corridor.
He spotted Amira’s desk from the doorway.
And the guy standing at it.
Medium height, fitted shirt, the particular posture of someone who had decided confidence was something you performed rather than something you had. He was leaning on the desk edge talking to Amira who was sitting with the controlled expression she wore when she was tolerating something.
Femi.
Xavier walked over without rushing.
Femi glanced at him as he approached, did a brief assessment, and apparently decided Xavier wasn’t relevant. He said something to Amira, pushed off the desk, and walked away.
Xavier sat down.
"Nice boyfriend you’ve got there," he said.
Amira’s expression shifted immediately.
"That was the guy who wanted me to come to his apartment. For tutoring." She said tutoring the way people say a word when they mean something else entirely.
"And don’t call him my boyfriend. Ever."
"He came all the way to your desk just to tutor you?"
"Apparently I left my pride somewhere and he came to return it." She pushed her glasses up. "Also you look different again."
"I always look like this now."
"Your whole energy shifted. Something changed." She studied him briefly. "It’s like you got bigger without getting bigger."
That’s actually an accurate description, Xavier thought.
"Women are weird," he said.
"Men are worse." She opened her notebook. "By the way — some Arts students came by yesterday looking for Food and Nutrition students to invite to a midnight concert they’re holding tomorrow.
One of them left invitations at the notice board."
Xavier looked at her. "Who brought the invitations?"
"A tall girl. Really put together. Came with two friends."
Is she who I think she is?."Was her name Sarah Torres?".
Amira stopped and looked at him properly.
"Yes actually. How did you know that?"
"She’s fairly well known around the Arts faculty."
"You’ve been to the Arts faculty?"
"Once. Looking for a schedule." She’s sure asking questions like my mom.
Amira’s expression said she was filing that answer away for later examination. "Are you going to the concert?"
Xavier leaned back in his chair. Midnight concert. Organised by Sarah. Which means Sarah will be performing. He thought about the main quest sitting at the back of his system interface. This is the kind of proximity that doesn’t come around twice.
"Yeah," he said. "I’m going."
"Alone?"
"Do I look like someone who goes places alone." He looked at her sideways. "You free tomorrow night?"
Amira blinked. "Are you asking me to go with you?"
"Yes."
"To a midnight concert."
"That’s what I said."
She was quiet for a moment. Not hesitating — thinking. There was a difference with Amira and he’d learned to tell which was which.
"That counts as a date," she said flatly.
"Call it whatever makes you comfortable."
She looked at him with the expression that sat halfway between amused and genuinely unsure what to do with him. Then she turned back to her notebook.
"Fine," she said. Like it cost her nothing.
Like she hadn’t just agreed to spend a Saturday midnight with him.
Good, Xavier thought, pulling out his phone.
My bad involving her in this, he thought privately. But I need a reason to be there that doesn’t look deliberate. Showing up alone to a Sarah Torres event on purpose is not the play. He glanced at Amira’s profile as she wrote. Besides, worse things have happened than spending a Saturday night with someone worth talking to.
He opened his system and checked his EXP.
[ REBATE SYSTEM ]
EXP: 3,650/5,000
[ 1,350 EXP remaining to next tier ]
Getting close, he thought. Very close.
He looked at Amira. Then toward the window and the Arts building beyond it.
Tomorrow night, he thought. Let’s see what you’ve got, Sarah Torres.