Ezra was born and raised primarily in the city of San Francisco. Childhood for him was not without its struggles, what with the poor vision and other ailments. His parents had considered the idea of homeschooling before he was born, and when they saw the stress that social interaction put him through, they made the decision to keep him close for his most formative years. They figured they could protect his self-confidence this way, as well as promote a healthy relationship with learning.
...And maybe spoil him, just a bit.
When he did join public schooling in middle school, he outright hated it. People would touch his things, wanted to try on his glasses; one particularly annoying child would call him creepy. He quickly fell into a more serious role amongst his peers, finding it difficult to relax. Apparently, the way he tried to set boundaries with them had been ‘inappropriate’, he even heard the word ‘bullying’ used to describe it… and the look he received from his parents when they heard his attempts to protect himself was crushing. So, he wouldn’t react at all to his peers remarks, cooly answering or not saying anything at all. He found ignoring them the best course of action.
Perhaps unfortunately, he was the only child of his parents, which was only unfortunate because they could be a bit much. Although they got on alright, there was always something they were worried about. Always something he wasn’t doing the ‘right’ way. There was always something he had to work on, and Ezra was keenly aware of it, and sometimes he just wanted them to stop worrying, and did his best to ensure it.
Friendship and being social was not something Ezra was good at, and his parents even tried fixing this for him as well. A few forced birthday parties and summers spent dreading the oncoming school year while helping his mother in her flower shop, and Ezra was starting high school. He promised his mother, begrudgingly, that he would invite someone over for dinner within a month. If he didn’t accept one of these challenges every so often, his mother would surprise him with some sort of wretched social interaction.
The dinner, however, had a surprise for him anyway.
He actually.. could tolerate this person. They got along. Ezra had more fun then he’d want to admit.
And thus began the least-sucky school year of all time. His parents stopped their constant stream of questions—
Have the other kids been bullying you? Are you feeling included? Who do you like to talk to? — ones that feel like there’s some hidden meaning.
The summer was coming up, the friend he made had plans for the summer, and he was eager to bring Ezra along. Ezra was feeling excited? Nervous? He couldn’t pin it down, but he started to daydream.
Right up until he got a phone call during school, his mother's panicked voice rung in his ears. His father had fallen during work, off a roof- will he be okay? how high up was he? She didn’t know. He came crashing down, and so did any summer plans.
The injuries sustained made him unable to work, and Ezra’s parents made the difficult decision to uproot their family and move to be with relatives. Ezra thought he should be sad, but couldn’t feel much of anything about it.
Ezra held onto the friendship he had as long as he could— but slowly, texts became shorter and calls more infrequent. He brushed off questions, and concentrated on helping his mother set up her business again. He could keep it together, for her.
At school, he wasn’t interested in making any friends...but that didn’t mean that no-one could weasel their way into his life. Despite the walls he had put up extra tall after losing his first real friendship, one emo little bitch managed to weasel his way under them. Casper Graves. Ezra still isn't sure why he puts up with him considering the fact all he does is be a big ol' bitch about everything, but Ezra keeps finding himself texting him back, hanging out with him, talking to him... It's annoying.