would  you  believe  us  if  we  said  that  wasn't  really   TOM HOLLAND?  well,  it  isn't  .á.á  that's  CHARLESTON KING,  a  proud  resident  of  pinehaven  for  the  last  2 WEEKS.  you  can  find  them  working  over  at   TABLETOP PLAYGROUND   as  a  CASHIER AND GAME-MASTER.  they're  30,  but  they  hardly  look  that  old!  it  must  be  the  washington  weather  that  keeps  them  looking  so  young  .á.á  word  around  the  town  is  that  they're   SECRETIVE, STUBBORN, and DISHONEST,  but  we  think  that's  silly.  we  feel  like  they're  much  more   CHARMING, HARDWORKING, and ALTRUISTIC.  if  we  had  to  pick  one  song  to  describe  HE/HIM,  it  would  be  AM I ALRIGHT BY ALY & AJ.  see  ya  'round,  CHARLIE  .á.á
FULL NAME: charleston everett king
NICKNAME: charlie, rex, ck
AGE: thirty
BIRTHDAY: july 1st
ZODIAC: cancer
SEXUALITY: closeted / bicurious*
FACECLAIM: tom holland
*charlie has had a few experiences with other men, enough to know that he is genuinely attracted to them, but he is still considered bicurious because he believes he is attracted to women as well. he hasn't acted on the attraction, and isn't sure if it's more than just an appreciation for beauty and finding it easier to be friends with women than men, but he doesn't want to completely close himself off to the idea of falling for or being with a woman either.
tw: mentions of suicide, depression, alcoholism, religious trauma and homophobia
charlie was no stranger to small towns. star, south carolina, was as small as they got in his opinion. everyone knew everyone, your neighbors felt more like extended family than strangers living next door, and nothing went unnoticed.
at least that's what he had always thought.
growing up the rules were simple. dinner with his parents every night by six pm sharp; homework needed to be done by eight pm on school nights; they went to the catholic church's seven am sunday service every sunday, no excuses; always say yes sir and yes ma'am; respect your elders; don't talk back; make his parent's proud; be good.
charlie clung to those rules as if they were the bible themself, especially after his mother died.
she had been his best friend. she was a font of light in his, and everyone else's, life. one night he was lounging on the couch with her, her soft pink manicured nails carding through his hair while they watched wheel of fortune, and the next she was just gone.
in small towns everyone was supposed to know everything. there weren't supposed to be any secrets, everyone was supposed to be too involved-- too much of a community-- for that and yet now they wanted him to believe that his mother-- the kindest, funniest, brightest person in his life; his only source of warmth-- was that depressed and no one noticed? no one at all?
after she was buried, the light in him dimmed so much that his father began to worry; everyone did.
he wore his mother's gold chain everywhere, carrying the dainty cross his father had saved up to buy her for years, but he wouldn't actually talk about her. not to his father. not to their priest. not to any of the counselors they sent him too. it was almost as if he believed not talking about her being gone, not addressing it at all, would keep it from being true.
unfortunately that's not how it works.
he turned to drinking, when no one was looking, to dull the aching in his chest. he pulled away from church, refusing to believe in a god or any kind of higher power that would be so cruel to take his mother from him for no reason. he pulled away from his friends. he pulled away from his father.
it was hardly fair but charlie couldn't bring himself to look at the man with anything other than hatred. he hated himself too. if he couldn't forgive himself for not seeing that his mom wasn't okay then how was he supposed to forgive his father?
fueled by the alcohol that was often in his system, the pair of them began to fight more and more. about his mom. about charlie's grades. about what the temperature was outside. nothing was safe from the anger burning away inside of him.
it all came to a head when charlie's father came home one night and not only found him drunk on the living room couch but being pinned there by some kid from a college a few towns over; a male. the words that were exchanged between them that night were not things that could be easily forgiven; or easily forgotten.
things were never the same after that, he and his father couldn't stand to look at each other let alone be in the same room together, so it was only a matter of time before charlie left.
he's been wandering ever since.
floating from the couches of friends he made online to the couches of complete strangers; to sleeping in the back of his van at state parks or in well lit grocery store parking lots. he wasn't sure where he was going, or what he was looking for, but he wasn't going to stop until he found it.
--and then he found pinehaven.
he was just supposed to stop off for gas and pass through but something about the close knit community, the way everyone seemed to know everyone, reminded him of home.
