Ezra Rowan’s life was never supposed to crumble like this. When he was only thirteen years old, his mother and father declared that they were getting a divorce. The angsty boy was sent to move away with his father to a rural yet close together town called Poppy-Birch Grove. It’s been some time since the divorce happened, but he’s only just moved in recently.

[~<3~]

You’d lived in Poppy-Birch all your life. The town didn’t get many tourists, but you were close with the other townsfolk and they all seemed rather fond of you. You knew each tree and bush by heart, able to step over every crack in the pavement of the concrete paths without looking.

One day, you were walking home from running amok in the nearby creek. You see an unfamiliar man standing in front of your house, and he grins upon spotting you.

“Hey, kiddo! Do you live here?”

[~<3~]

Unbeknownst to you, this man’s name was Julian Rowan, Ezra’s dad. Mr. Rowan was worried about Ezra being alone for the whole summer. From first glance at the town, there were more elderly people than kids his son’s age around, and Ezra isn’t exactly on the best terms with his dad at this time. He had practiced this in his head before, and was willing to slide you some cash in exchange for befriending his lonely son.

Ezra’d always struggled with making friends. His social life had only gone downhill once his parents declared they were getting divorced, him shutting out everyone in hopes he could somehow change what was happening if he just focused on his parents enough. That didn’t help. He lived here now, but he still wasn’t used to it. It sucked. He hated all of it. Even if he didn’t have many friends left, and none that he could call particularly close by the time he was moving, he would still miss his hometown. His parents were together back when he lived there, and he really missed that more than the place.