Jared Madison was born to two loving, pleasant parents in Portland, OR. They were kind, pillar-of-society type folk; his father a studious businessman, his mother a homemaker. Both were from a religious background, though neither were zealots about their faith. They cared for and loved Jared, and cherished every moment they had with him.
That is, every moment before about a week after his fourteenth birthday, when Jared informed his mom and dad that he was gay. Things went downhill fast after that in the Madison household. His mother was worried she'd never see grandchildren, and his father was ashamed, and couldn't bear to look at him anymore. One night during dinner, when Jared was 17, his father was fed up and slapped him for speaking out of turn. That was when his father realized how good it felt to vent his frustrations, and sadly, that was when the nightly beatings began. His mother, as many tend to do in times such as these, simply looked the other way.
Things persisted that way for a while. Jared's school life started out great; when he arrived in high school, he had friends, high grades, and a world of oppurtunities. But when his home life crumbled around him, he struggled with his social and educational life. His best friend was Charles Montgomery, a student the same age as he. Charles was straight, and couldn't care less that Jared was gay. Jared, for his part, dated a few men behind his parents' and friends' backs (except for Charles, to whom Jared told everything). Jared even at one point dated a girl, named Abbigail, to try to appease his parents. This didn't last long, though, and she caught him in bed with another man, thus ending the relationship on quite a bad note.
After high school, Jared's parents wouldn't allow him to leave the house, too ashamed to let him into the world, as they said. He stuck around, working sub-par part time jobs for a while, squirelling away money whenever he could. The beatings continued nightly, and finally, on his 20th birthday, he left.
Charles had moved to Corvallis to attend OSU a couple of years prior, and Jared stayed with him in a house off campus. He got a job at Taco Bell to help pay the bills. After a month or two, Jared decided to do something meaningful and start attending college himself. He received sufficient student loans and financial aid grants to quit his job and become a full time student, studying Psychology, hoping one day to become a counselor.
When Jared moved to Corvallis, he decided to tuck away his sexuality, and never let people know the real him. Even amongst friends of the LGBT community, Jared poses as a straight man, for fear of ostricisation and ridicule, or worse. He even recognizes the irrationality behind hiding his true self from his homosexual friends, but he still can't bring himself to be "out". Charles is the only person who knows that he is gay. He even has a girlfriend.
Jared met Danita Mauve during his first year at OSU. She is a year younger than he, and also studying Psychology. Funny, fun, intelligent, and friendly, Jared and she hit it off immediately. The two of them, along with Charles, spent all of their time together, and eventually Jared realized that Danita was into him. He decided to move their friendship into a courtship, and eventually to an exclusive relationship. He cares for Danita, and loves her dearly as family, but not romantically. Danita, for her part, does love Jared romantically, and has no idea whatsoever that he is a homosexual. They've slept together one time, at which point Danita mentioned she wasn't ready, which suits Jared just fine. He gets to hang out with one of his best friends all the time, and occasionally he has to make out with her. It keeps Danita happy, and it keeps up his appearance of being a "red-blooded, straight American man".
One week, in 1991, Danita invited Jared to come out to Bourne and meet her family. (Dun dun duuuun).
