Payback at Riverside

The Shift

Three weeks later, I barely recognized my own life.

I'd quit my job at the campus bookstore, keeping only my weekend shifts at the coffee shop downtown. Every spare hour went into the app. Early mornings before class. Late nights after homework. Weekends when I wasn't serving lattes to suburban moms.

The app was starting to look real. Not just code on a screen, but an actual product that people might actually use.

"Okay, show me what you've got," Tyler said, dropping into the chair next to me in the computer lab. It was Friday afternoon, and most students were either in class or already starting their weekend parties. We had the place mostly to ourselves.

I turned my laptop toward him. "This is the main dashboard. You input your class schedule here, and then you can add assignments with due dates. The algorithm analyzes your past productivity patterns and suggests the best times for you to work on each task."

Tyler scrolled through the interface, clicking on different features. "This is clean, man. Really clean."

"Yeah?" I tried not to sound too eager for his approval, but I was.

"Yeah. Way better than that garbage the university makes us use." He clicked on the calendar view. "Can you integrate it with Google Calendar?"

"Already done. And Apple Calendar. And Outlook."

"Show off." He grinned. "Have you tested it with real users yet?"

"Just me. I've been using it for my own stuff for the past two weeks. It's actually helping. I got my Economics paper done two days early because the app reminded me I work best between 9 and 11 PM."

"Weird flex, but okay." Tyler leaned back. "You need beta testers. Real people who aren't you."

"I know. I'm just not ready yet. There are still bugs, and the design needs work—"

"It's never going to be perfect, Jake. At some point you just have to put it out there and see what happens." He pulled out his phone. "I'll be your first tester. Send me the link."

"Seriously?"

"Dead serious. I'm drowning in assignments right now. If this thing actually works, it'll save my life." He paused. "Also, I know like twenty people who would use this. Let me spread the word."

"I don't know—"

"Stop overthinking everything. That's your problem. You're so worried about failing that you won't even try." He stood up. "Send me the link. I'm getting five other people to test it this weekend. By Monday, you'll have real feedback."

After he left, I sat there staring at my laptop. Tyler was right—I was overthinking it. The app worked. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough for testing.

I created a simple signup page and sent Tyler the link. Then I spent the next hour making sure everything was working properly, checking the server, testing the login process.

My phone buzzed. A text from Tyler: *Already got three people signed up. This is happening, dude.*

A smile crept across my face. This was actually happening.

I packed up my stuff and headed back to the dorms. It was getting dark outside, that weird time in October when the days were getting shorter but it wasn't quite cold yet. Students were out on the quad, throwing frisbees, sitting in groups, living their best college lives.

I used to do that with Ashley. We'd sit out here on Friday afternoons, her head on my shoulder, talking about nothing and everything. Now she was probably doing the same thing with Ryan.

I shook off the thought. That chapter was closed. I had better things to focus on.

Back in my room, my roommate Dave was getting ready to go out. Dave was okay—a business major who spent most of his time at the gym or at parties. We didn't have much in common, but we got along fine.

"Hey, man," he said, pulling on a button-down shirt. "Some of us are hitting up a party at the Delta house. You should come."

"Nah, I'm good. Got work to do."

"Dude, it's Friday night. You've been working nonstop for weeks." He grabbed his wallet. "When's the last time you actually had fun?"

"I have fun."

"Coding doesn't count as fun." He sprayed on cologne. "Come on. Just for an hour. There's going to be free beer and like a hundred girls."

I considered it for about half a second. Parties meant running into people from the gala. People who'd seen Ashley dump me. People who probably still talked about it.

"I'm good. Thanks though."

Dave shrugged. "Your loss. Don't study too hard."

After he left, I pulled out my calculus textbook. I had a test on Monday that I needed to prepare for. But I couldn't focus. My mind kept drifting back to the app, wondering if Tyler's friends were actually signing up, if they'd like it, if it would work for them.

An hour later, my phone started buzzing with notifications.

New user signup. New user signup. New user signup.

I opened the admin panel. Seven people had signed up. Then eight. Then ten.

Holy crap.

I watched in real-time as more people joined. Tyler must have posted about it somewhere. The numbers kept climbing. Fifteen. Twenty. Twenty-five.

My heart was racing. This was actually working. People were actually interested.

By 10 PM, I had fifty users.

I spent the rest of the night monitoring the system, making sure the servers could handle the load, watching as people created accounts and started inputting their schedules. The feedback comments were already coming in.

*This is exactly what I needed!*

*So much better than the school's system.*

*Can you add a feature for tracking study groups?*

I stayed up until 3 AM, taking notes on every suggestion, fixing small bugs that people found, responding to questions. It was exhausting and exhilarating at the same time.

Saturday morning, I woke up to 200 users.

"No way," I said out loud, staring at my phone. The number had quadrupled overnight.

I got dressed and headed to the coffee shop for my shift. My manager, Linda, was already there, setting up the espresso machine.

"Morning, Jake. You look tired."

"Didn't sleep much."

"Let me guess—studying?"

"Something like that." I tied on my apron and got to work.

The morning rush was brutal. Riverside students loved their coffee, especially on Saturday mornings when they were hungover from Friday night parties. I made latte after latte, took order after order, barely having time to think.

Around 11 AM, during a brief lull, I checked my phone.

350 users.

"Everything okay?" Linda asked, noticing my expression.

"Yeah, just... something good happened. With a project I'm working on."

She smiled. "That's great, honey. You work too hard. Nice to see it paying off."

The rest of my shift flew by. Between customers, I kept checking the numbers. They kept growing. By the time I clocked out at 3 PM, I had 500 users.

Tyler called as I was walking back to campus.

"Bro! Have you seen the numbers?"

"Yeah, I can't believe it."

"I posted about it in the Riverside class f*******: groups. It just took off from there. People are sharing it like crazy." I could hear the excitement in his voice. "This is insane, Jake. You built something people actually want."

"It's still just beta testing—"

"Stop downplaying it. This is huge." He paused. "Hey, you should come out tonight. We're celebrating at Mario's. My treat."

"I don't know—"

"Dude, you have 500 people using your app. That deserves pizza at minimum."

He had a point.

Mario's was packed when I got there. Tyler had claimed a big booth in the back and invited half a dozen people I vaguely knew from classes. They all congratulated me, asked questions about the app, suggested features.

It felt weird being the center of attention for something good instead of something embarrassing.

"To Jake," Tyler raised his soda. "For proving that scholarship kids can kick ass."

Everyone cheered. I felt my face turn red, but in a good way.

We were halfway through our second pizza when I saw them walk in. Ashley and Ryan, along with a group of their wealthy friends. Of course they'd be here. Everyone came to Mario's.

Ashley saw me immediately. Her eyes widened slightly, then she looked away, leaning closer to Ryan.

"Ignore them," Tyler said quietly. He'd noticed too.

"I am."

But I wasn't, not really. I watched as they got seated across the restaurant. Watched as Ryan pulled out Ashley's chair for her. Watched as she laughed at something he said.

It still stung. Not as much as before, but it was there.

Then something weird happened. One of the guys at their table pulled out his phone, showed it to Ryan, and pointed in my direction.

Ryan's face darkened. He said something to Ashley, who also looked at the phone, then at me.

"What's that about?" one of Tyler's friends asked.

Tyler grinned. "I bet they just found out about the app."

"Why would they care?"

"Because everyone's using it. Including people in their social circle. Including people who used to think Jake was nobody." Tyler leaned back, satisfied. "Word travels fast around here."

He was right. Over the next hour, three different people came up to our table to talk about the app. Two of them were people I'd seen at the Fall Gala. People who'd watched Ashley dump me and probably felt sorry for me.

They weren't looking at me with pity anymore.

When we finally left Mario's, I felt different. Lighter. Like something had shifted.

Tyler and I walked back across campus together. It was a clear night, stars visible despite the city lights.

"You know what's funny?" I said.

"What?"

"Three weeks ago, I thought my life was over. Like, genuinely over. And now..."

"And now you've got 500 people using something you built." Tyler clapped me on the shoulder. "That's not revenge, man. That's just winning."

Back in my dorm room, I checked the app one more time before bed.

750 users.

I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about everything that had changed. The app was growing faster than I'd ever imagined. People were actually using it, actually finding it helpful.

For the first time since the Fall Gala, I fell asleep smiling.

Ashley Brooks thought she was trading up when she left me for Ryan Mitchell. She thought money and status were the only things that mattered.

But she was wrong.

I was building something real. Something that mattered. Something that was mine.

And I was just getting started.