Theo arrives in Las Vegas with Larry and Xandra. He moves into their house in a ranch community, and he notes that “[t]he emptiness of the place stunned me” (225). Theo slowly adjusts to life in his new environment, spending time with Xandra at home. He learns that Larry had been flying back and forth to Las Vegas even before he left the family and had already started a relationship with Xandra. Though he is not drinking hard alcohol, Larry is drinking beer and taking Vicodin. He makes a living by gambling.

When school starts, Theo becomes fast friends with Boris, a 16-year-old Ukrainian. Boris has an Australian accent and has lived all over the world. On Theo’s first visit to Boris’s house, he notices that “somehow we never got around to watching S.O.S. Iceberg that afternoon, maybe because we couldn’t stop talking long enough to go downstairs and turn on the television” (242). They spend almost all of their free time together.

Boris drinks frequently, and Theo begins to do so as well, and the two often become drunk together. Boris’s father also drinks and physically abuses Boris. One night, Boris’s father beats him with a cane, and Boris escapes out back with Theo.