Griffin knew exactly who he could and could not be from the time he was in middle school. He could not be the boy that looked at other boys with engrossed attraction, no, that was meant for the pretty girls in his school only. He would not be that guy, no matter how many handsome boys his eyes would chase within the hallways. he did a good job of hiding behind beautiful girls until Keith Ellis moved into town and something like self-acceptance started to touch his heart in the midst of deadly circumstances. P.S. The story proceeds very slowly. The first 26 chapters of the story are basically all about Griffin - him losing his mother to cancer and him trying to date other girls to convince himself that he's not gay. He only meets Keith far into the story - in the 27th chapter.