character :: Victor Williams
I’m proud of who I am. Dad said that I am like a pearl that some clam spit out, something wonderful made of grit and dirt and pain. I think I’m here for a reason, even if that reason’s already passed.
Victor is a small and gleaming success story nestled somewhere between Matt’s protective reach and Genesis’ creative parenting. Born to a heroin junkie and a rapist, then thrown out for dead, Victor spends his early childhood believing that his older half-brother is his father. The scope of his life is a 5x5’ closet filled with the cleanest blankets Matt can find and second-hand toys, but it’s good enough. At some point, Victor can remember leaving that warm, safe place and suddenly being thrust into the hands of strangers – Pretti and Jeff – as Matt makes one last-ditch effort for a better life for his kid. He gets passed between the two homes, Pretti and Jeff then Matt, for the remainder of his childhood; until a nice woman named Genesis comes along and becomes Victor’s mother. By the time Genesis becomes Victor’s FATHER, well, the little boy is so used to confusion by this point that it makes little difference. Victor likes Genesis more as a boy, anyway.
Most would expect for Victor to develop with a chip on his shoulder, just like Matt…but something miraculous can come from love. Somehow, the little boy is unscathed save for a minor learning disorder and a very loose, calm expectation of life.
Now, Victor is entering his teenage years; and Matt’s introduced a new kid to his home. His name is Tyler, and Victor can see the same darkness in his dad’s eyes peering out from inside of his new housemate. Whether it’s a relationship of convenience, or some kind of twisted justice for the hell that Matt put his own adoptive father through, Tyler and Victor somehow find themselves in the flurry of a romance that only youth could afford them.
