The Son and the Sparrow

Leon's biography

I'm currently editing TS&TS and part of that is creating concrete and official character biographies. It's a very boring process and so I am putting these at the end just to assure myself that I am actually doing something useful. Plus, who knows, someone might actually find it interesting. The roughdraft on wattpad and this might be different-this is the more official version. 

LEON- 35 years old

Childhood

Leon was born to a wealthy family in the suburbs. His father had a daughter from another marriage, Cecelia, but she was quite a bit older than Leon. Leon grew up resenting Cecelia’s perfect seamless success as he struggled with school. Teachers thought him unusually quiet with few friends. His grades weren’t bad, but they couldn’t compare to Cecelia. At this age he couldn’t understand why he couldn’t earn his parents’ love and acceptance when he was putting forth all the effort he could.

Adolescence

Middle School

Leon learned not to care what his parents thought to him and began drifting downhill. His grades were bad. He didn’t have friends, or attend dances. In his spare time he went wandered around town, walking as far as he could go before needing to go back home. He preferred to spend as little time there as possible. Sometimes he would find a cigarette in a parking lot and smoke it.

High School

In early high school he was smoking pot, two years later he was selling it. His grades, however, were better and his parents stopped bothering him. He also made friends with Daniel his first year. They were best friends through most of their high school career. Leon spent a lot of time at Daniel’s house playing video games and hanging out. Leon had quite a few girlfriends but they never lasted long. He fell in love twice, and broke up with both of them. 

Early Adulthood

A year before graduation he and Daniel decided to drop out of school and run away together. Leon had saved up a stash from selling and they used this money to duck out of school. They began selling full time, going to random high schools where it looked like they fit in as students. Eventually Leon met Alexander and they became good friends. Alexander began encouraging them to sell heavier product. When Joanna joined the flock, they realized that they had a solid outlet for product and set out on their own, forming the flock. Philip and Cale joined the flock, but Leon didn’t hold much interest in either of them. They were valuable, but he couldn’t say that he enjoyed being around them. Joanna and Leon began to date, which Daniel gave him a lot of shit for. Business was very good, but as business grew so did their enemies. Alexander started bringing in troublemakers for Leon to punish, or get information from. Leon took upon this role easily, as he could fall into a sort of meditative trace while doing it. It didn’t give him guilt or grief.

Current

Leon met Haley at a bar on Daniel’s birthday. Leon was instantly attracted to this girl, and thought she was pretty and had an irresistible innocence. They went on a date, went hiking, talked for three hours, really connected. After their first date Leon broke things off with Joanna. Haley liked the outdoors and Leon liked movies, so they took turns and had some good dates together. After a month Leon revealed his method of making money, and in horror Haley completely dropped contact with him for another month or two. He called her repeatedly and they eventually started again but went much more slowly. Leon fell deeply in love with her and was patient and sweet. They were sweethearts for a long time but their relationship never became serious. Leon was conflicted because he loved his job but he knew Haley would never completely settle down as long as he was dangerous. They did this for years. Haley got pregnant and Leon decided that Haley was worth quitting for, so he betrayed the flock by giving away the members of the flock, their hideout, and said that Alexander killed Nick and Aron. The flock went to jail and they got married right away. They had a child together and he got a job as a car salesman. They had a normal life and Leon thought that he was very happy. His son then died and he decided that it wasn’t his fault. He distanced himself from the accident little by little while rationalizing to himself and trying to ease his guilt. As he distanced himself from the situation, he got angrier and angrier towards his wife and blaming her subtly. She caught on very quickly, but as it spiraled out of hand she called him out on it. The got into a horrible argument and as they argued he got very angry and verbally aggressive. At one point Haley’s eyes widened and he realized that she knew he was angry enough to hit her, and might have if it continued. Haley kicked Leon out of the house. He left, but eventually wanted to him home. When he asked, she told him that he needed to attend therapy. He obliged, but didn’t understand her reasoning and therefore his heart wasn’t totally into it.