Character Analysis
When Noah meets his neighbor, Brian is the new kid in town. Much to Noah's surprise, he's not like other guys (you know, the surftards). From the moment they meet, Noah finds him to be totally fascinating. A space buff, Brian "has a bag of meteorites. He carries pieces of the galaxy around in a bag." (3.123) Which may sound pretty dorkalicious, but he's also super smart, super cool, super talented and, above all, super dreamy.
Happily for Noah, he's also super gay.
But Noah doesn't know that at first, at least not for sure. It takes months of ambiguous flirting and fleeting touches before Brian finally makes his move by kissing Noah. The only hitch is that Brian's so scarred from being bullied at his old school that he's afraid to tell the world who he is. He begs Noah to keep their passion for one another a secret—a secret that Noah ultimately can't keep.
Ironically, Brian comes out of the closet soon after that, which is sort of a big deal because he's a baseball prodigy. (His throwing arm is so good that his nickname is "The Ax." Wow.)
Noah doesn't know that, though, because he loses track of Brian after his mother moves towns. Eventually, Jude looks him up and finds that Brian's just two hours away, at Stanford. She anonymously sends him a link to Noah's Lost Connections post, which paves the path for their reconciliation. Thanks be to Google, saving young lovers once again.