Name:
Spencer "Spence" Rivera.
Age:
26.
Gender:
Male.
Race/Ethnicity:
Half Caucasian/Half Hispanic.
Sexuality:
Bisexual.
Appearance:
Spencer stands at a towering 6'3, with a very fit build, since he enjoys being active and working out. He usually lets his thick, brown hair do what it will, usually pushing it back so it doesn't hang in his face. He already has a skin tone similar to a tan all year around but during the summer, it usually darkens since he enjoys being outdoors. He wears laid back outfits, usually opting for loose t-shirts and sweats, or gym shorts and a muscle shirt, and almost always tennis shoes. He almost always looks like he's ready to hit the gym, unless it's a special occasion, then he will dress up, though he doesn't like clothing that feels constricting. For his job as a nurse, he wears scrubs, of course, and with his hours, he is also seen in scrubs a lot.
Personality:
Spencer is like the energizer bunny; he can't sit still for a long time. He's always up and down doing something and if he is sitting down, his hands are fiddling with something, and his knees are usually bouncing. He seemingly has an endless amount of energy and he runs a lot to try and blow the energy off. He's carefree, talkative, and loud. He enjoys life and people and the city he grew up in. He's very encouraging and isn't judgmental at all. He's a very handsy person, always touching someone's shoulder or arm or knee when talking to them. He likes to make people laugh and smile, so he's a joker, always using puns and sarcasm and cheesy jokes to get his humor across. Despite this, it takes a lot to get Spencer to open up; it also takes a lot of time to get close to him. He's open in a friendly and fun way but once someone tries to get closer, or tries to dig into his past, he shuts down and changes the subject. Because of his past, he's hesitant to let people into his heart, and he has trust issues. But, once he lets someone in, he's very caring and protective of them. Even though he looks like a man who would get angry easily, he doesn't; he might get annoyed if someone is being rude but it takes a lot to get him to a point where he's red in the face and ready to blow. Maybe Spencer is so loud and happy and, honestly, over the top, because he suffers from depression. He doesn't tell anyone he suffers from it and nobody would guess. While he loves being active, some days, he will just lay around and eat whatever and be a couch potato. Those days are farther in between than they used to be but sometimes, they still happened, and usually he had to try his best to power through them, but given the chance, he doesn't go anywhere on those days.
History:
Spencer was born and raised in Chicago. His father was an American while his mother was Hispanic. His father had met his mother when he was on vacation with friends in Mexico, during his college days, and it was a fast love. They kept contact and once they both had enough money saved up, she moved to Chicago, they got their own place, and were very much in-love. However, that saved up money didn't last long, and once his mother became pregnant with him, his father's job at a retail store wasn't paying the bills and extra expenses that a baby would take, and so his father began working two jobs. They had to move into downtown Chicago, into a very unsafe neighborhood, but they had no choice, no longer able to pay for a middle-class apartment and medical expenses since their insurance was not worth anything. Despite the sketchy neighborhood and the local schools not being the best, Spencer did have loving parents, who loved him and each other very much.
Though, when Spencer was only eight, his father was coming home late from his second job and got caught in the middle of a gang shootout; he died in the hospital the next day. Spencer and his mother were lost; she had never worked, always staying home to care for Spencer and the house. The money they got from his death would not last forever and so his mother became a waitress at a diner down a couple blocks, having to often leave Spencer with their neighbors, a sweet older woman whose grandchildren came and went often in the apartment complex. Spencer made best friends with her grandson, and enjoyed staying with the older woman, while his mother tried her best to support them without falling into a depression. Even still, she was depressed, and Spencer saw the shift in his mother, saw she wasn't as happy; she rarely spoke to him, just worked as much as she could, and was running herself ragged. As Spencer grew up, he noticed how she was struggling; he, himself, was struggling but he tried his best to be there for her. She still struggled with English, having only known Spanish when she met his father who was fluent in both languages, and so Spencer was fluent in both; he tried to teach her more but she refused, saying she would eventually get it, and Spencer just knew the teachings reminded her of his father.
Spencer was doing fair in school; though, his best friend, Danny, wasn't a good influence. He encouraged Spencer to not care about his school work and by the time Spencer was a sophomore in high school, he was barely passing and Danny had gotten him into the "party scene," at the high school, where Spencer would go out with that crowd and drink and smoke and get up to no good. Spencer's mother was so busy between working, and trying to run from her grief, she hadn't taken notice when it first began. But, when Spencer's principle called, and she had to leave work to come to the school, she found out about it. Spencer had been caught smoking behind the school with Danny and a couple of his other friends; though Danny was the one who dragged him into that scene, Danny put all the blame on him, claiming Spencer stole the cigarettes from Danny's grandmother, that Danny had saw it, and that Spencer was the one who pressured them all into trying the new things. Spencer tried to argue it wasn't true but life was unfair and the blame was put onto Spencer anyway. He got expelled from school for longer than Danny and the other two friends got. Spencer would be out of school for a whole month and his mother was furious; she dragged him home and screamed at him and in her anger, and all her built up grief and overall anger at life, she began hitting him. Spencer let her, because he thought he deserved it; he realized he shouldn't had let Danny pressure him into those things and in the end, Danny put it all on him, when he thought he and Danny were good friends, especially since he and Danny had experimented with each other before and kept it a locked down secret.
His mother had apologized profusely once she realized what she had done and of course Spencer forgave her; she had been going through a lot of mental issues for years and he didn't need to pile more problems onto her shoulders. Still, their relationship was never the same, and the rarity of which they spoke became never speaking to each other. They just shared a house together. Spencer hated the shift in his life, that he had been partially to blame for it. He never went back to Danny's grandmother's apartment, afraid Danny would be around there, and for the month he was expelled, he almost never left his room, letting depression eat away at him. When he did return to school, having to come back the year after, and thus being a year behind, he discovered Danny had been spreading rumors around about him being gay and always hitting on him and trying to proposition him. He had to start his sophomore year over, and so for three years, he dealt with being teased and bullied, homophobic slurs thrown his way, and having no friends. He had been thinking of dropping out of high school when he bumped into Danny's grandmother one day when he walked home from school; he was just in the middle of his second sophomore year and he had already been thinking of dropping out and just finding a job.
He expected her to be angry at him, or disgusted, expecting Danny lied to her, too. But instead, she invited him inside and they had a long talk, where Spencer broke and told her everything, how Danny had lied, and what was happening at school now. Danny's grandmother was very open and sweet and gave him the encouragement to ignore those people, finish high school, and move on to make something of himself. He began going to her house more often after that and even though his school life was hard, and he and his mother were like strangers now, he had Danny's grandmother and she was the highlight of those years. He finished high school and went to college, at first for general studies; he wasn't sure what he wanted to do. Danny's grandmother fell ill during his freshman year and she had to be moved into a nursing home. Spencer visited her often and discovered what he wanted to be as he visited her - a nurse. Maybe a doctor one day. Danny's grandmother had been so excited for him and the next semester, Spencer started the nursing program, and excelled at it. He loved it, feeling like he had found his passion. During his second year at college, Danny's grandmother passed away. Spencer was heartbroken, having felt like that woman became a second mother. He had seen Danny at her funeral and seeing him brought back memories; that, combined with her death, made a really hard year for him, but he kept pushing, in memory of her.
He graduated nursing school and now he's 26 and works as a nurse at a nice hospital, crazy hours but good pay, so he can afford a nicer apartment in a complex. Sometimes, his mother calls him to check in, and he talks to her, but there's a distance between them that still hurts him. He hopes, one day, they can reconnect, but he isn't so sure.
Other:
As seen in the picture, he has a little Yorkie pup, named Peppermint York, or Peppermint/Pepper. He sneaks the little puppy into work and lets her stay in the break room, where puppy pads are laid down, and the other nurses fawn and coddle her; he still finds time to train her and she's almost house broken. He sometimes brings her into patient's rooms, the ones who seem down or are children, and she's very therapeutic for them, though he has to be careful where he brings her, of course, since he could get in trouble for having her there. He's working on getting her license to be an official service dog, since even for a puppy, she's very calm and listens very well and is therapeutic for him too.
