Adrian Rémy Courtein was born on April 2, 1988, in New York, New York, to Sarah Antinis and Matthew Courtein. Matthew had been born in Paris, France, but moved to America during the '70s. One of the first people he met was Sarah, a native of the city.
Adrian was was the youngest of two, the oldest being his sister, Michelle, who was two years older than him. They were the perfect little family of four; took vacations and went to school events, were cheering their children on at soccer and cheerleading, and were there to help make 60 cupcakes for the following day's bake sale. Life was perfect, and Adrian could not have been happier. He was beyond friendly, popular, loved meeting friends and being loud and adventurous. He'd do all sorts of tricks and stunts just to get laughs. He was happy, but it didn't last.
When Adrian turned seven, his life turned upside-down. His mother filed for divorce which just made no sense to Adrian nor Michelle; their family seemed perfect, what was wrong? They didn't know that their parents romance had been falling apart for years due to personal issues, personal vices, and the fact that they just were not who they were when they first fell in love. The final straw for Sarah was when Matthew almost got them in a car accident on the way home from a wedding because of how drunk he was. The divorce papers were taking too long and were too much for Sarah to wait for, so one day she up and left, completely gone from their lives. Matthew was heartbroken yet at the same time was completely and utterly enraged. He was unable to stay in New York; everything reminded him of Sarah. He was moments from picking everything up and moving back to France, taking Adrian and Michelle with him, but he stopped himself. He didn't want to make the kids start all over just because he didn't want to deal and because Sarah couldn't handle it. They had to deal with the loss of their mother, he didn't want to make them have to deal with the loss of everything else they knew, too. Instead, he sent Adrian and Michelle to live with his sister and her partner in Boston, Massachusetts, while he picked up and moved back to France. So, in his eyes, his children didn't lose everything, just their parents - which didn't exactly work in their favor.
Matthew's sister, Stephanie, was nothing but sweet. She understood their loss. She did everything she could in order to patch up their broken hearts and resentment from that day all the way until high school. Michelle eased her pain with alcohol and Adrian became her shadow, mimicking her actions. The aftermath of it was enough to get him to stop on his own, however; he wasn't exactly a big fan of feeling so sick that the smell of food made him vomit, and he didn't enjoy the long lasting friendship his face and the toilet were forming. So he ended his sudden passion for alcohol while his sister continued hers, and instead just went through a full personality change, a total 180. He was quiet, kept to himself, didn't go out and rarely spoke to anyone. He had major trust issues, feeling that any friendship or relationship wouldn't last and therefore wasn't worth starting in the first place. This phase lasted until the middle of his first year of college - when Sarah came back into his life.
At first he was incredibly angry, hateful and hurt but when he gave in and listened to her, the pieces he never understood were starting to make sense. She seemed so much happier now, and he couldn't find it in his heart to not forgive her. From there, he branched out and went back to how he used to be - fun-loving big jokester, a big fan of going out and meeting people and having fun regardless of what is thought of him. Although now he can be a bit of an ass once in a while, and trust issues are there that weren't when he was younger; he sees them as defense mechanisms to keep himself from going through the loss again, but still living rather than existing. He didn't want to live the rest of his life carrying a grudge and taking it out on everyone, including those he didn't know. That wasn't the way to live and he knew it. The lesson learned was that life is incredibly short and can be snatched away in an instant, and Adrian decided not to live life enclosed in a self-made bubble, but rather grabbing it by the reigns and running.
( facts + lines. )