Charlie was a mistake. Plain and simple. In his parent’s eyes, he shouldn’t have been born. He was the rip in the condom that no one expected — nor wanted. And his parents treated him that way all through his life — right up until he was a teenager, where he turned 18 and they were no longer able to pose any power over him. 

His parents resented Charlie for existing, but they only kept him because they enjoyed the child benefits payments that landed in their bank accounts every month. Sometimes he helped fuel their drug habits. They were relentless heroin and marijuana addicts. Sometimes they mixed to the two and would pass out on the sofa in the middle of the room when Charlie was five. They’d leave him to do is own thing, which often meant wandering around and finding food for himself somehow. His parents would also abuse and torment him. His father beat him physically. His mother molested him sexually. He hated it. And he has to live with those thoughts and memories everyday. On a few occasions, he has contemplated suicide. But he’s never been strong enough to go through with it. 

But despite being deprived of a childhood and a life, Charlie shone in academia. He didn’t choose to live the life of rebellious teenager living on an estate, finding himself caught up in gangs and crime and drugs and everything else he grew up around. He wanted to change all that, and he realised from a young age, that nothing was going to stop him doing that. Fear of slipping back into that life keeps him awake at night.

Charlie’s an intelligent man. Incredibly intelligent. His brain processes and recites information extraordinarily quickly, and he doesn't know how. More importantly, though, he doesn't know where it came from. Both his parents are illiterate, and they are, in his eyes, complete wastes of space. They offer no purpose to life. They never give anything back, all they do is take take take. He likes to think of himself as a mutant — something new borne from nothing. 

Charlie excelled in school. He graduated from York with a First Class in Biomedical Sciences. He then moved onto a masters and a postgraduate, receiving funding from the government and also some life-savings he’d been squirrelling away during his undergraduate studies. After he graduated, he got a job as a science teacher. He didn’t really know what he wanted to do, so he started with that. Charlie learned early on that he hated it. Teaching wasn’t for him. The only thing he enjoyed was some of the relationships with the students. There was one particular child that he built a fondness with, and he soon became involved with the child’s mum. But everything changed one day. Charlie returned from lunch to find the boy dangling from the ceiling in Charlie’s classroom. The sight shocked Charlie and made him feel sick. He was signed off work for some time and was advised to speak with a therapist; he ignored the pleas, and decided to overcome the trauma himself. After finally picking up the courage to return to work, Charlie decided it was time for a change. Never before would he held be able to set foot inside a school — it would only remind him of the boy who killed himself. 

No, Charlie wanted a different test. He wanted to do something that he had always wanted to: become a scientist for the World Health Organisation. And that’s what he did. Within a few months, he became one of the most senior members — without any experience — because of his skills and intellect. Charlie served with the WHO for eighteen months, with his close friend Benjamin Weiss (they had gone through university together). Charlie trusted Benjamin, which was wrong. The director general, Marianne Evans, was like a mother to Charlie — the mother he never really had — and, one day, in Marianne’s office, Marianne tried to kiss Charlie. Charlie, infatuated by her, kissed her back. It was beautiful. Perfect. But their moment was spoiled by Benjamin who stumbled upon them. He quickly made up a story that labelled Charlie as a sexual aggressor and attacker. 

It didn't take long for him to lose position in the WHO, and then Charlie found the only thing he could find: a waiter job in The Shard.