Breaking Chains

“Unbelievable!”, he unbuttoned his uniform hastily before throwing it onto a chair in his suit. The door opened quietly and his personal butler slid into the room, walking across the room to tend his uniform. “Father is unbelievable!”

Hector sighed and slid a cloth hanger into the uniform sleeves. “Your highness, your father has a reason for your engagement.”

Nathaniel looked out to the yard from his wide windows. The king and queen of Paladonia were getting into their car as well as their daughter, the princess of Paladonia, who supposed to be his fiancé earlier. His parents and hers already set them up since they were born. Simedia and Paladonia were fast different, but somehow, there was an international cooperation between two countries. To “seal” the cooperation, they decided to get the prince of Simedia and the princess of Paladonia as spouse, but that wouldn’t happen.

“Can I just find my own wife, Hector?”, Nathaniel sighed and looked over to his butler that had been with him and the royal family before he was even born.

The butler smiled and closed the closet’s door before walking over to the prince and gave him a pat on the shoulder. “I’m sure you can, your highness. You’re such a rebel, so I’m sure.”

He smiled and thanked the butler. An idea sprouted in his mind and it was kind of radical, but somehow the only way out from his engagement or his parents’ wrath. “Hector, can you help me up with something?”

“Of course. What do you have in mind?”

“Find me and sign me up into a college in Florida.”
***********
He leaned back onto the back seat of a cab that would take him to University of Central Florida. Hector was concerned at first about his idea but he supported it anyway, even though it was really risky because he could lose his job or even go to jail for this, but Nathaniel left a note for his parents saying that Hector or anybody in the palace didn’t have anything to do with it.

Ever since he was born, his parents and the kingdom already preparing him to be the future king when his father, King Morrad III, would step down from his throne in the near future, or when Nathaniel found a wife. When he was 10 years old and Hector showed him around the city, he saw some homeless people and he felt bad about them because he lived in a palace when they didn’t even have a home. Since then, he always thought his title was some sort of a curse.

“Here we are.”, the cabbie stopped in front of the university. Nathaniel fished some 20s from his pocket and gave it to the cabbie. He got out and got his luggage out from the back trunk. The night air was humid and dry, but it wasn’t much of a budge for Nathaniel because it reminded him of home.

He dragged his luggage into the building and looked for the admission office. When he stepped in, the lady behind the computer looked at him tiredly, like she had been there since early morning and it was still 7 PM. “Hello, can I help you?”

“Yes.”, Nathaniel nodded and sat on a chair in front of her desk. “I’m Nathaniel York, and I’m the new student here.”

“Oh yes, the transferred student from…”, she narrowed her eyes on her computer screen. Nathaniel rolled his eyes at her action. Was his country’s name that hard to pronounce? “Simedia?”

“Yes.”

She smiled and opened the drawer on her desk to get some paper works. “I have you in one of the dormitory, but… a student filled in last minute.”, she frowned. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh… what should I do?”

Then, the office’s door swung open as a guy stumbled into the room with his messenger bag slung on his shoulder and he pulled his headphones down until it hung on his neck. “Hi, Mrs. Ferald.”

“Ah, Marcus! Just in time!”, she clapped her hands and flashed me a quick smile. “You’re looking for a roommate in your apartment, right?”

Marcus stopped and hitched his bag higher on his shoulder before nodding to Mrs. Ferald’s question. “Yeah…”, he trailed off and glanced at Nathaniel. “This guy needs a place, huh?”

Nathaniel looked back from his shoulder and smiled. He stood up and stuck his hand out to Marcus. “I’m Nathaniel, but you can call me Nate.”

“I’m Marcus.”, he grinned. “You’re cool.”

After finishing the paper work, Nathaniel slung his backpack and dragged his luggage as he chatted up with Marcus. The apartment was just 10 minutes walk to school, so it wasn’t too far. Marcus lived alone in an apartment and he needed a roommate because his father just died, so he needed someone to chip in the rent with him.

“So here it is.”, Marcus waved his hand to the living room of the apartment as he hung his jacket on the hanger. “Not much, but you get your own room, you can use the kitchen all you want, and you have your own bathroom in your room.”

The apartment was neat and it was nicely decorated. You couldn’t tell a guy lived here from the way it decorated. “Nice apartment.”

“Well it’s yours as well.”, Marcus chuckled as he ducked his head into the fridge to get a gulp of orange juice from the jug.

They spent the night by getting to know each other more on the couch since they both were going to live together. Since Marcus was friendly and very opened, Nate felt like he already knew him for years even the truth was just for hours. He felt like telling Marcus his true identity, well, because they were going to spend their two years in college under the same roof.

“Hey, Marcus, can I tell you something?”, Nathaniel asked with a yawn since it was almost 4 AM.

Marcus looked over to his new roommate and nodded slightly. “Sure, dude.”

“I’m actually… a prince.”

His roommate looked at him for a minute before bursting into laughter. “Yeah right, Nate. Nice joke.”, he laughed and threw a cushion to Nate.

“I’m serious!”, Nate rolled his eyes. “I’m a prince of Simedia, a country in Europe near Greece.”

“Show me a prove!”, Marcus cocked one of his brows and challenged him.

Nate narrowed his eyes and walked over to his backpack that was still on the floor of the foyer. He pulled out his wallet from the front pocket and threw it at Marcus. “Look at the picture.”

Marcus furrowed his brows and flipped it open. The pictures holder showed a picture of a king and queen of some foreign land he didn’t know and a clone of Nathaniel, standing between them, with his full royal uniform. “….You’re a real prince?”

He shrugged and sat back down on the couch. “Since we’re going to be roommates, I thought you should know, but you’re the only one who know and I hope you’ll be the only one or I’ll slit your throat in your sleep.”

“That explains your funny accent.”, Marcus chuckled. “Alright, your highness, you have my word.”