Age and Birthday: 25, March 17
Personality: Very easy-going, normally to the point of excess. He’s not so much the bad boy, but certainly is the most hooliganistic of the clan of Fitzpatricks. He realizes that to the rest of the family, he’s a bit of a joke, but he typically doesn’t mind. After all, someone had to do it and who is better than slacker-born Colin? Really, calling him a slacker is kind of a misnomer. He works very hard at his job (despite himself), but he tends to be kind of a fuck-up. An underachiever in a family of overachievers tends to be thought of as the black sheep. Luckily, Colin’s position in life as the next-in-line to run the deli saved him from that particular fate. Colin is a live-and-let-live sort of man, though only to those around him. When it comes to his own dreams, Colin is more likely to let them fall by the wayside. After all, even he doesn’t trust himself to succeed.
Bio: Colin Edward Fitzpatrick, the first born child of the Fitzpatrick-Byrne side of the family was born to cause trouble. Really, if you knew him you would likely think that the only way one small, seemingly unassuming young man could cause the trouble he did is if some spawn of Satan has escaped the underground in the form of a small Irish-American child. Or at least that’s what his mom always told him. Colin was a highly precarious child, impossible to teach without experience. He wasn’t unintelligent, just the perfect blend of daring, stubborn, and brave to cause enough trouble to drive his poor mother to gray hair at an early age. Also something she used to tell him–her hair remains red to this day.
Colin was born and raised in Queens, in the house that belonged to his grandparents before his parents, next to another house with a small blond girl named Emily whose family wouldn’t speak to them after Colin cut her hair off with the hedge trimmers. It was just an experiment. Which, really, Emily must have understood because as they grew up they became the best of friends. Theoretically. As close as a boy and a girl can really be as the dividing forces of a five year-old’s world pull them apart. Because girls, after all, have cooties. It was on this realization that Colin started attending Catholic school. Emily, of course, went to regular school, which Colin liked the thought of at first–but he liked his school. All the nuns were fond of him, telling him that he looked like a little angel even when he was, in fact, being kind of a bad boy.
Colin kind of got away with murder. He didn’t really know why, some combination of dimples and a kind turn of phrase, but he learned to manipulate the system, playing on the sympathies and heartstrings of his teachers in order to coast along with as little resistance as possible. Colin was a popular little kid, personable and smart, though his grades never reflected it–much to his father’s dismay. Colin watched his cousins grow up and go to better schools, heard his aunts and uncles whisper about how those kids were ‘going somewhere’, and knowing all along that they didn’t say the same thing about him. Colin couldn’t blame them. He didn’t have any dreams outside of the deli. Colin liked working there. Sandwiches weren’t the end of his fascination–though how ingredients worked together certainly interested–he loved to watch his mom bake and cook dinner. Colin wanted to be a chef. Not that he would ever announce this fact, because his father would probably laugh at him and his mom would point out that it wasn’t possible, and that the closest Colin would ever get was the deli itself.
So Colin dedicated himself to the deli. He spent long hours there with his dad, learning how everything worked. He also dedicated himself to having fun–because if he couldn’t do what he wanted, he might as well get away with as much as he could. Colin grew up, and when he was sixteen he began to work at the deli himself. Not that he was utterly dedicated to his work–he spent a lot of that time flirting with the customers, but at least he was at the family business, right? Emily re-entered his life, becoming a regular customer at the deli, and Colin’s regular date after work hours.
Unfortunately, Lois and Eddie thought that the relationship seemed a tad too serious–despite Colin’s protests that it was particularly casual. After he graduated from Catholic school (easily, but without real notability), Colin’s parents shipped him off to Ireland to live with his grandparents (Lois’s family) for a year. Colin doesn’t talk much about what happened during that year, but it didn’t live up to his parents’ expectations. He and Emily were closer than ever upon his return, a relationship that culminated in two children for Colin–and a secret that he still hasn’t shared with anyone from the family. After all, sometimes it’s just easier to let people think the worst of you.
For reasons that Colin hasn’t shared with the rest of the family, Emily moved to Canada–Toronto, which wasn’t too bad, but did make it a little more difficult for him to visit the kids. Still, he’s managed with postcards and weekend visits. He manages and runs the deli now, under Eddie’s ownership, and for the most part his life is happy.