Blue Blood and Belgium Chocolate

|08| Of Drinks

PRINCE LAURENT

Age: 22 years old

COMPARED AMONG ALL of my siblings, I had the most tutors. They were the dark circles of my childhood I wished to forget. I hate how difficult it made my life throughout all my schooling years, even in university. I tried to protest this, by failing on purpose, which of course meant more tutors. Even when I was doing better, I still had a tutor.

I never hated the tutor. I hated having one. 

Merely because, thanks to a teacher, my classmates knew. They'd laugh at me for having someone at home to privately make sure I understood what I was learning.

As one of my bullies, a kid called Butch teased, "Look it's the dumbest kid in class!"

When I had tried to tell my parents I didn't need a tutor, both of them had said it was preposterous. That even if I am doing well, there's room to be perfect.

It's one of the reasons why it's difficult for me to have friends. Adaliz never cared for any, he always had Daegan. The only friends the two of them had were within royalty or royally accepted acquaintances. Fabianne was the most loved from all of us, everyone adored her.  

Jasper and I? We were different from the start, while the others were privately tutored. Jasper and I were sent to school. While Jasper rose in popularity, ending his year with being president of nearly all the clubs, I'd been called names.

I'm pathetic compared to them. 

It took me a long time to find real friends. Friends who didn't care I had extra help or that I was fifth in line to the throne. 

There were also those who did care, some of them would play nice to me as Jasper would call it while others would mock me. 

"The furthest away from the throne," One would say.

Another would taunt, "I'm so happy that you'll never even taste the throne."

"Everyone would have to die to give you the throne!"

"The fifth!" Some would tease as I walk back home from school. "The fifth!"

I stretched out on the bed. It's a Friday night. Nights like this meant that my friends from college might be heading out. One of them was a night life photographer. Something I wanted to do if I had the skill for it.

I call him up. Nikolas Nord.

After graduating, like the party animal he has always been, he ended up working as a night-life photographer. It's how we met, at the first college party I'd gone for.

I hadn't been invited to many parties in college. I hadn't even been invited to the one I was going for. I was tired of feeling left out, so I was going to go in. I didn't care if they'd hated me for it. I could only hope they wouldn't. 

What's the worse they could have done? Kick me out?

I took effort in how I looked. I didn't want to look like a prince, which essentially meant dressing up like Adaliz or Jasper. My goal was to look normal, to blend in, to be one of them.

I'd watched what they wore.

So, I tried. I'd worn an over-sized red hoodie to mask the slenderness of my frame. I wasn't broad or masculine. The girls used to whisper when they didn't think I was paying attention that I looked artistic. And to blend in, I wore jeans, something that felt foreign on me as my father had never been fond of jeans.