Demon keeps basic bills paid, but the trailer is falling apart and he and Dori fight over everything, including his habit of testing the furnace. He recognizes how his early obsession with Dori has flattened into numb routine, managed only by carefully dosing enough pills to function. He works at Sonic and occasionally draws more strips for Tommy at the Lee Courier, but Dori resents any time he spends away.

Needing someone honest, Demon meets Angus at “Hoboland” park and vents about his deteriorating life with Dori. Angus updates him on trouble back at school: Coach is worried, and U-Haul is spreading rumors that Ms. Annie is cheating with Mr. Maldo and that Demon supposedly witnessed it at June Peggot’s on July Fourth. Demon’s anger spikes, but Angus refuses to “fix” Dori for him and bluntly reminds Demon that choosing Dori means living with all of Dori, not just what Demon loves.

On impulse, Demon goes to the high school parking lot and catches Ms. Annie leaving. She welcomes him warmly, urges him to return and finish school, and explains how underpaid and precarious her position is—kept afloat by commissions, band gigs, and the summer ice-cream truck. Demon tells Ms. Annie he came to deny being part of the rumors; Ms. Annie admits the gossip hurts and worries most about Mr. Maldo, who is unwell and could lose insurance if he quits.

Ms. Annie also names the deeper problem: parents targeting her husband, Mr. Armstrong, using bigotry and “communist” accusations as cover for resentment of their interracial marriage. Before leaving, she reveals she knows Demon is the artist behind “Red Neck” and challenges him to claim his work, insisting art is labor people get paid for and that Demon should stop thinking small.

Demon returns to the reality Angus described: he “lives with it,” enduring filth, clinic visits, dealing, and the exhausting logistics of keeping two addictions fed—while Dr. Watts barely even recognizes him. Demon’s strained sense of honor erupts when Dori starts stealing from Thelma, escalating from small items to jewelry and appliances; Demon scolds her, then softens, reframing Dori as fragile and childlike to avoid emotional catastrophe. High and drifting, Dori fantasizes about marrying Demon; he plays along, then carefully turns her on her side and props her with pillows before he leaves the house.