character :: Anderson Cole
“I wish I could blame myself on you, but we both know that wouldn’t be right.”
Anderson was an upper-middle class brat who wanted to do something that would both piss his father off and make his mother cry; simply because it hadn’t been done yet by his older sister. He was bored, just like the other liberal-arts college bound kids who lived in his neighborhood. And well, Anderson’s plan worked. His mother was crying and his father was pissed the day he came out of his room, stoned, and revealed to them both that he planned to move with his secret husband to California. Hell, Anderson even thought he’d try his hand at the music production field – since his fiancée had the voice of an angel, it’d be easy to get in with someone good.
But in California, things went south fast. He found the dealer he hoped for, but the cash he had brought drained fast. Without telling Seth, Anderson was accepting funds from his teary-eyed mother: it was fix and food money while Seth was out looking for a job. The two of them want the picturesque life: two high class gay men with an adorable adoptive baby. They submit the paperwork, knowing it’d be years before they’d even have a shot. Things seemed pretty sweet, but getting a job was just not Anderson’s aesthetic. The arguments started, which Anderson was not sticking around for. As soon as he would come home after work, Seth started in asking all those questions about the apartment and why it looked so shitty, and Anderson would shoot back with something equally as ridiculous; then walk out the door to spend the night at his girlfriend’s.
Mariah was perfect for him. She was a constant source of free drugs, and the two of them would shoot up and spend the afternoons together in a hazy bliss. Nothing mattered when he was with her. Eventually, Seth caught Anderson in the act: something started chiseling through his cool exterior when Seth walked out on him. He came back, like he always did, and the joyful news came to them: their paperwork had finally been processed. Because of Seth’s job, they were free to adopt. Nothing can fix a broken relationship like a baby, right? The second honeymoon phase doesn’t last long when Anderson dropped the bomb that Mariah was pregnant now with a baby that’d eventually be their responsibility.
Seth walks out the door one last time, daughter in tow, and Anderson is left alone with his thoughts. For the first time, something cracked through that wall around him – and Anderson felt something. What a loser.
Anderson sobers up over some time, and even manages to find himself the only job he can get – a shitty gas station job that makes him stare at poor working class people all day long. Something mental breaks inside of Anderson; and when Seth comes back after months of tearful begging, he’s never giving him up again. He quits his job to care for the developmentally challenged baby he created, a constant reminder of his infidelity. Now, Anderson has the emotional capacity of a 10 year old. Every little thing makes him cry: fear, happiness, love, sadness – and this emotion instability leads him to hate what he’s seeing. After a lifetime of trying to act like he didn’t feel a thing, the emotions come back with a gut-punch, and his embarrassing reaction has Anderson hiding when the tears come back.
Now, it’s Anderson’s chance to make it up to his faithful husband. There’s a garage band growing in popularity downtown, and Anderson submits Seth’s heavenly voice via recording behind his back. When Matt calls Seth, begging for his talent, Seth agrees: and Anderson is that high school boy all over again watching Seth perform. How can a man love such a massive fuckup? Anderson will never know. But there’s a chance to set things straight: it might just take his entire life to do it, but Anderson vows it’s going to happen.
