character :: Xander
'Life was so shitty before - I just assumed it was always going to be that way...then one day, it felt like I woke up...and it wasn't anymore. Suddenly, I was surrounded by people that cared about me, that loved me enough to save me and then my past seemed like just that...my past.'
Growing up as Alexander Rusk wasn't easy - in fact, it was far from it. Born into a family of drug addicts and alcholics to a prostitute that didn't want him, Alex didn't have the best beginnings and things were only going to get worse. As he grew into a small child in the low income area of Los Angeles, his sick family could only see a money signs, exploiting the child to sexual predators in exchange for cash and drugs. The only comfort Alex had was a friend of his, Mattie, who was also be trafficked by Alex's father and a kindred spirit who, too, suffered in silence. The only thing that 'fixed' the pain that the two felt were the very things they were sold for, a vice that even they couldn't escape.
By the time Alex was a teenager, he was a hardcore heroin addict but there was a light at the end of the tunnel...a chance for escape from his abusive home. Despite his previous failures, there was only two options: live and die as an addict and a prostitute or try, or die trying, to escape. Together, Alex and Mattie planned everything out down to the second, their escape route was set and nights later, Alex made a break for it, following every step of the plan until he had reached their meeting place except...Mattie was nowhere to be found. Alex considered going back for him but the feeling of true freedom, for the first time in his life without his father beating him relentlessly or strangers hands grasping at him in the dark, overwhelemed him so Alex did the only thing he could imagine doing in the scenario he was given: he ran; he ran until he could no longer see the housing buildings anymore.
For the next several years, Alex, who had shed the nickname his father had used and now went by Xander, jumped from place to place, living off of whatever he could find on the streets. It isn't until he meets a bartender who's a little rough around the edges and a no nonsense police officer that Xander realizes that his life could be more than what he's living and even with all he's been through, there's still love to be found in the most unexpected places (and people).
Xander's life isn't perfect but, after all he's been through, it certainly feels like it is.
