Chapter 1 You Are Too Broke For Me

"So, this is how you should present a gift to any girl, to make her love for you multiply in the blink of an eye." Tom said, grabbing the box which contained a brand new necklace from Ferdinand.

Ferdinand couldn't help but shake his head as he was aware that Tom was about to share another one of his dumb ideas. What could he do? Tom had been his best friend since the first year of the university.

Among his three dorm roommates, Josh, Frank and Tom himself, Ferdinand always felt more comfortable around Tom, despite his so called creative ideas.

Ferdinand folded his arms as he watched Tom display his romantic drama.

Tom went down on one knee, he opened the box which contained the necklace and looked up to the sky, posing as if he was looking at a girl's face, then he spoke, "roses are red, violets are blue, my love accept this gift, from my heart to you... and that is how you present a gift to your girlfriend on her birthday." Tom his head held high in the sky.

However, despite the romantic drama, Ferdinand was having second thoughts; "nah,... I don't think Sarah will like that. It sounds more like an old school rhyme." He said, to the dismay of Tom.

Tom widened his eyes, "dude, are you kidding me? What type of girl won't fall for such romantic words? Any girl will fall for these words bro... no kidding." He argued.

"Sarah is not any type of girl, she is special." Ferdinand said with a proud smile, then his smile quickly changed into sadness. "Maybe too special for someone like me." Ferdinand sighed.

"Don't say that to yourself, bro." Tom had a worried look on his face.

"Honestly, Tom, I don't know how to approach Sarah anymore. I mean, when we got into the university, the first two years were good. She was so simple, and we saw each other regularly, but when she got transferred to her new dorm room this year, she made new friends and somehow she started keeping her distance away from me.

Whenever I brought the issue up, she always brushed it off, saying she had a lot going on in her life which she rather not share. I don't know what to do anymore." Ferdinand closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, trying hard to control his emotions.

Tom placed a hand on Ferdinand's shoulder, "I am sorry to hear this, bro. whatever is holding Sarah back in your relationship, I am sure she will get over it soon, then she will come around. More to that, when you will present the necklace to her, and say those words I told you to, her love for you will multiply... trust me.." Tom ruined the moment.

"Thanks for the advice, but no." Ferdinand said as he walked ahead. "Let's hurry back to the dorm, I don't want a gift which I just bought to get sour on the way before it gets presented to the receiver." Ferdinand added.

"Hey wait for me, lover boy." Tom's annoying voice sounded from the back.

.......

Tom and Ferdinand had finally arrived at the university dorm.

They headed straight to the girl's dorm where Ferdinand was to present the necklace he just spent all his $75 savings on, to Sarah as her birthday gift.

As they approached the building, they noticed that an unusual crowd was gathered in front of the building.

The duo tried to imagine what was going on, but couldn't come to a conclusion. When they got close enough to hear the words of the crowd, they could hear words like;

"Isn't that Damien, one of the richest guys on campus?"

"Yeah, he was transferred to this university this year, I heard he is the son of one of the top billionaires in the world."

"Who is that girl? She is so pretty, how come I have never noticed her before?"

"Seems like she is a friend of Britney and Nicole, the most popular girls in school."

"I know right? She could easily fit into the list of the top ten beauties of Berkeley University."

With all these words being said, Tom and Ferdinand couldn't fully understand what was going on till they saw it for themselves.

Tom's mouth dropped open when he saw Damien, kneeling in front of Sarah, with a box held in his hand. Inside the box, a necklace made up of diamonds could be seen glittering in the sun light.

Just looking at the necklace, one could tell that it cost millions of dollars.

Things went worse when Damien said out the words, "Sarah, would you be my girlfriend?"

Tom turned and looked at his friend to see how he was taking the scene before them, but to his surprise, Ferdinand was very calm as he watched everything.

Tom's brain was spinning as he tried to put the puzzle pieces together. How could Ferdinand stand by and watch another dude propose to his girlfriend like it was a romantic movie? Little did he know that Ferdinand was calm because he believed in Sarah.

Ferdinand had known Sarah since they were just secondary school students. They had been dating since then, and Sarah had never been the type of girl who had love for material things.

In fact, Ferdinand wasn't sure why Sarah had accepted to date him, despite the fact that he was just a poor orphan who was living in an orphanage.

He felt that maybe it was because Sarah also had a similar life like him. Back then, she lived with her mother who was a farmer.

As for her father, she had never seen him. Her mother had to struggle to pay her fees. Also, they were both very brilliant students. When they were done with high school, they had to apply for scholarships at Berkeley University, which they made it with flying colors.

But the main reason Ferdinand was so confident, was a promise which he and Sarah had made to each other before arriving at the university; to love and cherish each other and to keep themselves for each other till they finished school and got married.

Ferdinand was ready to keep that promise at any time, so he was very sure that Sarah would do the same.

Everyone was left in suspense, their phone cameras recording the silence as they waited for Sarah to give the golden reply. Sarah turned behind and looked at her new friends, Britney and Nicole.

They gave her the thumbs, urging her to say yes. After what felt like an eternity of silence, Sarah finally parted her lips and aired out her reply.

"Yes, I will be your girlfriend."

The crowd burst into cheers as Damien stood up with a big smile on his face, he took out the diamond necklace from the box and wore it around Sarah's neck, and then they finalized the proposal acceptance with a deep kiss.

Tom heard a thud on the ground beside him, and when he looked down, he saw the box which contained the $75 necklace which Ferdinand had bought for Sarah, lying there. When he looked at Ferdinand, the calm look on his face had changed to horror.

Ferdinand's eyes were completely red. The veins on his forehead and neck had bulged out like they were about to explode any moment. Ferdinand was no longer the person Tom was standing with.

Before things got out of hand, Tom decided that it was time to get his friend out of that place. "Come on, let's get out of here." Tom tried to grab Ferdinand's arm, but he pushed Tom's hand away, then he started walking furiously towards Damien and Sarah.

Ferdinand was meaning to get answers. The amount whys in his mind were about to blow his brains out.

To make matters worse, Sarah had kissed Damien so passionately, which was something Ferdinand had never done with her for the amount of years which they had dated, but Sarah had done it with Damien, less than a minute of their official dating.

Chapter 2 Wisdom Is Peace

Sarah stood in Damien's arms as the crowd was giving them congratulations, however, Sarah's mood instantly changed when her eyes fell on Ferdinand, who was approaching them furiously.

'Oh god, what is he doing here? What does he want at this very point in time?' Sarah asked herself. At this moment, she wished she could just disappear with Damien, because Ferdinand was about to ruin the moment.

When Ferdinand got close enough, he caught the attention of everyone. They could see that he was hurt, but also furious. "Sarah," Ferdinand called softly, tears rolling down his eyes.

"Ferdinand," Sarah called back, trying to keep a straight face.

"Is this some sort of a prank?" Ferdinand asked hoping Sarah would say yes.

"And what exactly are you referring to?" Sarah asked, trying her best not to give in to her fears, her heart beating in her chest rapidly.

"Don't pretend like you don't know what I am referring to, Sarah. What happened to the promise we promised each other?" Ferdinand asked.

"Whoa! Whoa! Wait a minute... "Damien who have been silently watching decided that it was time to step in. "What is going on here? Sarah who is this and what promise is he talking about?" Damien asked feeling puzzled.

"Well, he..." Sarah tried to speak, but she couldn't find the right words to bring out as her next words could either ruin her or build her.

"Am her boyfriend, and we made a promise to each other to keep it that way." Ferdinand replied firmly.

Everyone gasped in shock when they heard Ferdinand say such words. The air was silent for a moment before Damien suddenly burst into laughter. He laughed hard, then he paused for a moment and took a look at Ferdinand form head to toe. His old clothes and cheap shoes made Damien laugh hard once more.

"Have you no shame dude? To stand in front of a crowd and call yourself Sarah's boyfriend? Don't you see that you both belong to different worlds, with you at the bottom?" Damien asked folding his arms.

However, Ferdinand decided to ignore Damien's words and focus on Sarah. "Sarah, please don't do this to me. This is not who you are, what happened to us, what happened to the love we shared and the promises we made to each other?"

Sarah chuckled, "love?" she raised an eyebrow. "Love is nothing but just an illusion. It is what which is really there that matters. And this is reality, Ferdinand. This is not a fairytale. Love is not just based on some promise we made to each other when we were both young and naïve.

Look at yourself, Ferdinand. What can you really offer me? You can barely feed and clothe yourself, not to talk of taking me out on a proper date. How do you expect me to hold on to that promise?

You may be handsome, Ferdinand, but your biggest flaw is that you nothing but a poor orphan, who can't afford someone like me. So, don't be selfish and let me go, because I already did that a long time ago."

Sarah's words penetrated Ferdinand's heart like an arrow, but he still had a little hope left. He went down on his knees and held Sarah's leg. "Sarah please, I am begging you in the name of God, don't do this. Don't throw away what we have built for many years, what will your mum think of this?" Ferdinand asked, tears streaming down his face.

"Come on, that's enough. You heard the girl. She has made her point clear." Damien tried to push Ferdinand off Sarah's feet.

"Get your filthy hands off me." Ferdinand retaliated.

"Excuse me?" Damien became upset as a church rat like Ferdinand called his hands filthy. "Do you know who I am?" Damien asked, but Ferdinand ignored him and went closer to Sarah.

"Sarah, I promise I would work hard and make it up to you, don't leave me..." Ferdinand pleaded.

"Hey, I said piss off!" Damien pulled Ferdinand back only to receive a punch on the nose.

Damien held his nose and looked at his palm. His blood was filled in his palm and this made him totally furious.

Damien decided that it was time to use his karate skills which he had learned from the karate lessons which his parents had forced him to take, on this church rat.

However, Ferdinand's muscular body which resulted from the hard part time jobs he had undertook to make his life bearable, had the upper hand.

Ferdinand easily takled Damien to the ground and unleashed the anger which he had held back the past minutes. Everyone who was watching or recording was shocked at the sight.

The security guards were quickly called and they arrived the scene as quickly as possible, since the commotion involved a billionaire's son. One bad occurrence on the son could bring disaster upon the school.

"Take this crazy bastard from on top of me." Damien ordered. The security guards tried hard to take Ferdinand off, but he was too powerful.

"Ferdinand just stop this now!" Sarah's voice loudly echoed into Ferdinand's ears, causing him to stop. The security guards were finally able to take Ferdinand away from Damien.

"Why are you causing a scene? What are you trying to prove? Let me make this straight to you. I have never loved you, and I never will. So get that into your thick skull." Sarah vented out her anger.

Ferdinand looked at Sarah in disbelief. Then he looked at everyone around him, they all had look of hatred for him in their eyes. Ferdinand decided to run away from the scene, and Tom quickly followed behind him.

Sarah quickly went and bent over at Damien's side, who was sitting on the ground. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yes, I am fine." Damien tried to act strong to reduce the amount of humiliation he just received. The anger in him was boiling as Ferdinand had just ruined the perfect proposal he had planned. And now he was sure that the videos of his ass getting whooped would be the next viral show all over the internet. He vowed not to let it slide.

....

Tom had tried to keep up with Ferdinand, but he was just too fast for him to keep up, so he decided to give up and return to the dorm. Ferdinand kept running to God knows where, till he found himself in an old looking park.

Ferdinand couldn't tell whether for how long he had been wandering around, lost in thoughts, and almost getting hit by a truck, but he decided to take a sit in the park.

His eyes were all swollen up from the excessive crying, and the headache in his head was wearing him down. He felt exhausted and broken both inside and outside his body. He lay down on the bench, starring at the clouds then he took a deep breath to relief some of the stress.

"She was right... She is too special for me." Ferdinand whispered to himself as his tears resumed.

"What is troubling you my child?" An old man's voice from nowhere startled Ferdinand. He sat up and saw a homeless man sited under his little tent.

"Leave me alone." Ferdinand responded and laid back down.

"You are in pain. It helps, if you share your pain. You can trust me." The old man softly replied.

Ferdinand sighed, then he sat back up. "What do you know about pain?" he asked.

"Oh, not much," the old man coughed for a while. Ferdinand felt concerned for the old man's condition. "But I do know that if you keep pain buried within you, it will eat you up from the inside, and make you vulnerable to any outside provocations." The old man added.

Ferdinand took a deep breath. "I just had a break up today..." he said. The old man quietly listened as Ferdinand explained everything that happened.

The old man had a look of concern when Ferdinand finished his story. "I am sorry to hear this, son. But I believe that everything happens for a reason. Sometimes you just have to let go of the little things in order to hold bigger things." He concluded.

Ferdinand looked at the old man as tears were rolling down his eyes. This time, it wasn't for Sarah, but for the old man. "Why are wise people always under looked? Why do wise people always have to suffer?" he asked quietly.

"My son, suffering, brings understanding to the wise." The old man stated with a warm smile.

Ferdinand smiled back. "Thank you, sir. I will keep your words with me forever."

Ferdinand said his goodbye to the old man and started his way back to dorm, feeling enlightened.

Chapter 3 Locked Up