![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) crossgate only |
[13 Nov 2008|08:47pm] |
 spam, anon, (in)appropriate sexual innuendo |
|
| bio; storylines |
[13 Nov 2008|08:25pm] |
Eric Kendall is a twenty two year old aimless layabout that likes to think of himself as a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Truth be told, it's more along the lines of laziness and a deeply rooted fear of commitment to the future. He grew up in Kansas - middle class, in the middle of the country, in an entirely middle of the road neighborhood. His mother is a dental hygienist and his father pulls long, excruciating hours at a factory that have left him with constant back pain. Despite this, Eric isn't much of a complainer. He isn't much of anything other than happy.
After high school, Eric attended Kansas State University where he double majored in business and partygoing. Sure, only the former was an official educational course, but he put in just as many hours with the latter. It wasn't necessarily that he was an alcoholic - he drank a lot and smoked even more pot - so much as he has always been a social creature. He thrives when he has people around, when there is loud music and a relaxed atmosphere. He should have been able to guess from the get go that he wasn't cut out for business. He tended to enjoy his philosophy and english classes much more than the ones where he would have to throw on a suit and put together a presentation about something that sounded mostly like jumbled jargon to him.
It was stressful - an odd sort of duality, because while he was content to spend much of his time hanging out with his friends, he didn't exactly want to flunk out of college either. And as fun as parties were, it was next to impossible to unwind during them. He found his relief in something he had been doing for years. Eric had taken up guitar in eight grade, but aside from a few appearances with his high school's band and chorus, he never performed outside of his lessons. In his sophomore year, he started to make the rounds of on and off campus open mic nights. There was something about it that let him step entirely outside of himself, with a head full of somebody's lyrics while he strummed away on the guitar.
Eric really hadn't set any concrete plans for life after graduation. While many of his fellow business majors were going on job interviews, Eric was going to coffee shops. He was well aware that he was about to have a degree that he didn't know what to do with it, and wanted to delay the hard choices for as long as possible. Vaguely, he figured he could probably live at home for a while and pick up some kind of dead end job to save up some money while he tried to avoid thinking about the future.
Respite came in the form of his roommate, Alex. The two of them had lived together since sophomore year. They had achieved the perfect balance of roommate-dom: they had different friends but enough in common so that they never ended up taking shots at each other. Alex - who was pretty well off - was planning to move out to Los Angeles in the foolhardy pursuit of an acting career. Armed with a frivolous, domineering mother and a meekly agreeable father, Alex already had an apartment lined up. The only thing he was missing was a roommate. It took Eric all of ten seconds to agree.
The two moved to the west coast one week after their graduation in May. California was like a dream come true to Eric, who had never seen the ocean. Sunshine. Salt water. Women in bikinis. Plenty of new people to meet and new places to ply his love of music. And best of all: no obligation to use his degree. Since moving to California, Eric has mostly supported himself by playing at birthday parties and working as a waiter. He is not above shamelessly flirting to get himself bigger tips. He figures that he's in a pretty good place for the time being, and his plans only extend as far as figuring out what he can do to enjoy the next day as much as he did the last.
|
|