Bette: “okay Shane, it’s not his fault”

Frankie: “you’re right”

Alice: “the problem now is if James rejects the teen, which must be the right thing to do, this one could either accept or challenge him or even blackmail the poor James”

Shane: “hmm…, we have to tell him to evade the boy”

Bette: “yes, but I think we have to do more, especially you Alice, you should be the one to deal with the boy in the course, you have to avoid his interaction with James, and we need a meeting with our friend”

Next day they all met James, who was dumbfounded to learn that a high school student has a crush on him.

James: “no…, I think you are misunderstanding, I don’t think any of them would put their eyes on me”

Bette: “why not James, you are a good looking guy, tall, strong, gentle, nice, caring, protective, you may not be very funny or not  have an active social life, but you are a very good person”

James: “thanks Bette, but don’t worry, nothing will happen between me and that boy”

Although James has already discarded any possible interaction with the teen, besides the academic work in the lab, Howie has apparently his own plan; he wasn’t sure if James was gay or straight, but he was eager to gain at least some friendliness from his undergrad mentor, the boy craves for fondness, because he doesn’t have her dad attention and affection at home, only his mother was caring for him and her sister; and he knew the worse will come, when his father finds out about his attraction for other boys.

The next days, Howie kept going after his mentor, asking questions and standing very close to him, James, though uncomfortable, answered the teen’s enquires, looking toward Alice, using eye language to ask for help, the blonde usually came right away to prevent the things could to go further, but that didn’t avoid the growing feelings in Howie toward James.

Due to the impossibility of a more personal interaction with his mentor, Howie decided to follow him and find out if there was a way to be friends with his elusive tutor. One Friday after class, James took Coleman to a gay bar for some drinks, he wanted his friend to open to him and see if he could help to soothe his pain and fear of being rejected by his family for his sexual orientation; Howie had entered the bar; and almost immediately was hit by some older boys, making some commotion, which was noticed by James and Coleman; the first one realized it was Howie trying to escape from the grip of some gays, looking for fresh meat.