name dexter allen sullivan
birthday 23, dec 3rd
resides lower east side of manhattan, ny
status
education ba in business from columbia university
job unemployed
family father: joseph sullivan (estranged)
twin sister: deanna sullivan tattoos between shoulder blades

biography
Dexter Allen Sullivan was born quiet as a lamb, feet first, after his twin sister. A breech birth, red faced, one that was quickly turning blue. His first introduction into the world required a hard slap to his tiny frame to get him to breathe. He heard that story so many times over the next 7 years of his young life, his mother cradling him, helping him to eat, and walk, and talk. How she was so scared that her baby wouldn't make it when the doctor told her he was coming out the wrong direction. Anything could have gone wrong, the umbilical cord could have been wrapped around his neck, he could have been a still birth, those were possibilities that she didn't dare consider as she pushed him into the world. But he made it, and so did his sister, Deanna, older than him by 13 minutes and quick to call him her baby brother when she understood how annoying he found it.

He was always adamant, "I'm not a baby!" And his sister would giggle and ruffle his hair, driving her point home. His mother would tell her not to tease him, and he'd find himself wrapped in her arms in no time, told what a big man he was. His father, Joseph Sullivan, seemed intent on Dexter standing up for himself, often telling his wife, "You're coddling him, he's got to learn to handle himself. If he can't keep his sister from bullying him, he's never going to be a man." It didn't matter that he was a child, he had a hard lesson to learn in his father's eyes.

Dexter tried to stay away from being a victim after that, wanting to be that big, strong man, that his mother called him, and his father intended him to be. He had to truly learn to stiffen his upper lip when his mother left. In the middle of their 7th year, Deanna and Dexter were left to the custody of their father, and Heather Sullivan vanished without a word to any of them, in the middle of the night. Young as they were, the twins didn't understand why, and their father would never enlighten them to the abuse she suffered at his hands, both emotional and physical.

But life went on for the young Sullivan twins, Deanna encouraged into feminine, and Dexter into the masculine. It wasn't a coaxing so much as a command, so intense that the one time Dexter dared to let his sister put makeup on him at 12 years old, he earned a beating from his father and instructions never to act like a 'sissy little girl' again. Dexter was told that playing football would be good for him, so he did it. He was instructed to call his father 'sir' when answering questions, to stand straight, to address authority for what it was until he earned his own. He felt like he was raised by a commanding officer rather than a father figure, and without a mother, he relied on his sister for kindness and compassion, their bond growing strong over the years.

Into 16 years old, Dexter had his first real experience with women. He started dating a girl from his high school, a young blonde named Maggie Richardson. He thought everything was great as they went out a few times, and it was, until he brought her home. When he left her alone with his father (going to get fast food) his dad groped her and hit on her, sending her out the door and out of Dexter's life for good. The rumors spread around the school about his dad guaranteed he didn't get another date in high school, despite being the star of the football team.

That wasn't to say he didn't have experiences. Eager to prove himself, Dexter often found himself in one night stand situations, being hit on by girls at parties, women of all ages on the street, all because of his dashing good looks, quick smile, and charming dimples. But he didn't get another actual girlfriend until he started college at Columbia University.

Beginning at the school his father was an alumni in, one of the highest ranked institutions in America, wasn't a bad way to start your career path. The problem was that it didn't matter that Dexter preferred scientific pursuits, or that he had dreams of becoming an engineer. To his father, he had one choice: major in business and take over the family insurance company. It was a state-wide venture, Sullivan Insurance, that promised payments for property and home damages ranging from fires to floods. The only way Dexter would have his education paid for, and continue to live in the lifestyle he had grown accustomed to, was to do what his father commanded and not question him.

In his freshman year of Columbia, Dexter was paired with a roommate that seemed, at first, to be quite different from the Sullivan boy. Noah Isaacson was nerdy, played video games, regularly ate ethnic foods that Dexter didn't even know how to pronounce, and was gay (a fact he hadn't learned until the following summer). Dexter was athletic, sporty, clung to the familiar, and came off as the epitome of male straightness with the way he fought to prove himself to his father and peacock himself around women. The friendship that grew between them, that had seemed so unlikely at first, blossomed into the strongest bond, outside of his twin sister, that Dexter had.

Over the next few years, Dexter dated a girl named Wendy Miller, who neither encouraged or discouraged anything that Dex did, but provided him with an outlet and a constant ego boost whenever he needed it. She grew bored after a time, and over the summer before his junior year, the pair broke up after she cheated on him. Dexter was devastated, and after losing what was once so familiar to him, struggles with feelings of loneliness and inadequacy.

Coming into his third year at Columbia, Dexter and his best friend Noah attempted a relationship. It was beyond passionate, flaming up into a whirlwind love and romance. It was a rollercoaster for both men as they struggled to stay together, and the relationship piqued when it was joined by a mutual friend, Josiah, that died off as their polyamorous relationship struggled with communication and trust. As one door closed another opened and Dexter began dating someone new, Emmett, falling in love all over again before that relationship ended too.

In his last semester at Columbia, still majoring in business, Dexter continued to live in Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity quarters and was the running back for the Columbia Lions. The young Sullivan, once troubled with the control his father had over his life, has done his best to conquer his greatest weakness by removing his father from it, both physically, and slowly the hold he has had over him emotionally. He still struggles at times with proving himself to his peers out of a deep seated desire for acceptance, but as his future continues to unfold, Dexter is trying to follow his own path and not let his life be dictated by others influences.

As his year and his last semester began drawing to a close, Dexter found himself falling in love all over again with Josiah York. At what he would describe as the darkest and lowest point of his life, a dramatic break up, a falling out with his sister, and quitting his job, Dexter dared to put his trust and his heart into someone else's hands. It has been and continues to be the best decision he's ever made. After petitioning to graduate early, with Josiah's father falling sick, Dexter found himself following his lover to Denver, Colorado. It was a move that proved to be short lived when Josiah had an accident that brought them back to New York, and back to Josiah's doctors who knew his medical history. Now all Dexter can do, as he struggles with feelings of helplessness, is just try to remain a stable force in Josiah's life and be his rock the way Jo allowed Dexter to lean on him.