Howard

Early life

Howard was born in the north of England and raised by single mum Ciara Levitt. His dad did not want to be involved with his upbringing and probably met him only once or twice when he was a baby. His mum met another man a couple years later and had a second son, Stanley, when Howard was three years old. Stan's dad became a father figure to Howard as well, but died in a car accident when they were both still very young.

Story

Howard had average school performance and kept the same friend group from primary school when he moved up to secondary. They were fairly popular and well liked, but he always felt himself blending into the background. He became closer friends with one girl from the group, Carolyn, and they eventually started dating.

At 16, Howard went to a vocational college for professional cookery in the hopes of eventually working as a chef, and also got his first job as a supermarket assistant.

Howard and Carolyn stayed together for around a year and a half, at which point it dawned on Howard that something was drastically wrong; although he genuinely cared for her, he realised that he was not attracted to her in the slightest and his affections had been purely platonic. When they became intimate, it had always felt performative to him, like he didn't really understand the point of it all but figured that's just how it goes.

When he broke up with Carolyn, she asked him the same question he had been asking himself: are you gay? But this didn't illuminate anything in him. Following his break-up, Stan, who is 15 at the time and openly queer, asks Howard if he could be asexual. After some googling around and talking to Stan's friend Rees, who is aromantic asexual, everything seems to click into place.

A few months later, at the age of 18, Howard got promoted to a supervisor at the supermarket. Shortly after, he ended up training a new employee called Andy.