okay, hold my beer, & check out kevin’s bio under the cut. ( there’s some pretty heavy drug & overdose stuff in there, obviously, so don’t please don’t read if that triggers you or makes you uncomfortable! )
kevin’s parents were from brooklyn, & he was meant to live there, too — but his dad died when he was too young to remember anything, & his mom sold their house to pay for a cheaper, decent apartment in staten island. this is the place that kevin remembers as his childhood home.
he likes to think his mom raised him right. she had to work long hours to provide for the both of them, so he was a latchkey kid throughout his childhood; but when she was home, she was kind to him, & instilled him with basic manners & respect. aside from having a single parent & spending most of his time home alone, kevin lived a pretty standard childhood — he never went hungry, & he wasn’t punished for no good reason. his mom never bonded with him quite like many mothers do, but he still loved her a great deal, & she did her best to care for him in turn.
it was in middle school that he started hanging out with the wrong crowd ( he wondered, later on, if this was because he lacked any male figure in his life. ) without realizing the path on which he was embarking, he made friends with some older boys — & they were genuinely closer to him than his mother ever was, even if he still loved her more than anything. the pack of high schoolers were a rowdy & impulsive group, & the kind, mild mannered kevin found himself behaving differently because of them.
steepening housing costs were at the root of a great deal of kevin’s issues, & they all began at this point in his life. his mother had to work harder & later, & she was no longer able to discipline him properly for smoking pot, skipping school, or staying out past curfew. under the influence of his friends, kevin continued to test these limits into high school — but he was still the same kid, especially when he was around his mom. it was here that he also became aware that they were in danger of homelessness, & began to notice for the first time in his life just how depressed & defeated his mother was. he’s never been sure if she was always like that or not.
troubled, he went to the people he trusted most: his friends, now college aged; although, most of them didn’t actually try to go to college. as a solution, they’re the ones who helped him get into drug dealing. he started out selling weed to other high school kids, & found it made him more than any part time job. ( of course, he gave everything he earned to his mother & told her he was working at a local restaurant. ) this went well until the end of his senior year, when he was caught selling for the very first time. he was expelled, never received his high school diploma, & spent that summer behind bars.
his mother didn’t want to see him after that. he couldn’t get a hold of her at all during his short sentence, but he’d been hoping that she was just too busy now that she had to pay for everything without his help. when kevin was released, the first place he thought to go was home — & yet, he wasn’t allowed inside. his mother answered & told him, for the first time, how his father had died: a drug overdose. before kevin could even argue ( it was just weed, ) she shoved a box of his things into his arms & slammed the door. he never saw her again after that.
where else could he go? to his old friends, of course — the same ones who’d gotten him into dealing in the first place. they took him back with open arms, & he didn’t hold anything against them. just like when he was younger, their influence caused his life to spiral out of control. he started dealing harder drugs, & watched people he cared about overdose thanks to their own addictions. there wasn’t a way out, but even if he found one ... he didn’t really want it. this life was exhilarating & he was raking in cash, even if he was becoming a real lowlife.
years later, he woke up & found himself ... alone. his childhood friends were either dead or imprisoned; he had no allies & limitless enemies. thanks to this, as well as a few close calls with the cops, he wanted to find a way to lie low without quitting ... & that’s when it occurred to him: he can just move somewhere else for a while. he knew a guy in the city we see in camp camp, & decided to bring his business out there.
sure, he doesn’t have any friends or family, but he gets by, & even makes trips to small towns like sleepy peak, for regulars. is he happy? eh. at least it’s easier if he samples his products every now & then.
