You can negotiate or skip out and leave the deposit. Just say you got a job last minute in some other state and defeat his mental idea of trying to dog you for the 5 months. Most people just bounce, but if I were you I would handle it with two months. its blown money but you gotta have some carrot for him to bite at. Bouncing with just one month is a big "fuck you". This is why I don't sign leases as in most places your required to put down last month anyways so your always on a 2 month commitment anyways.
If you want to break it the most shady way possible without bouncing in the darkness of the night is to just not pay your rent. This will force him to serve you papers within a 30-45 day time frame (jurisdiction dependent of course). He uses that deposit to cover that 30 day window and then your out. Try to negotiate first though then if no bueno then just don't pay next month and bounce. If you bought a place his reference is worth nothing going forward.
If you want to break it the most shady way possible without bouncing in the darkness of the night is to just not pay your rent. This will force him to serve you papers within a 30-45 day time frame (jurisdiction dependent of course). He uses that deposit to cover that 30 day window and then your out. Try to negotiate first though then if no bueno then just don't pay next month and bounce. If you bought a place his reference is worth nothing going forward.