The protagonist goes to visit his best friend, and she kisses him unexpectedly, misinterpreting his verbal appreciation of her as attraction. She asks him to leave when he does not reciprocate her feelings because she felt he was leading her on. The friends do make up later when the protagonist realizes he is gay. There is passing mention of a relative being raped and executed during the Armenian genocide. The love interest character discusses having dated a college student while in high school. The college student was only 17 from having skipped a few years, though, so their age difference was only 2 years.