During Bryon's emotional journey, he begins to recognize his moral obligations. In his younger days, Bryon admits he "wasn't above taking a pack of cigarettes from a drugstore, but that was about it." He was open to stealing trivial items but had his limits. Additionally, he acknowledges, "I still felt that stealing was wrong." In contrast, Mark "was really bad about stealing things" even as a "kid." Bryon notes, "Mark couldn’t see anything wrong with stealing stuff." When Charlie dies trying to save Bryon and Mark after previously warning them about hustling, Bryon's sense of moral duty deepens, and he experiences true guilt for the first time. "I couldn’t get it out of my mind, Charlie’s warning us about hustling." Bryon tells Mark, "Charlie is dead! He was all set for life, he wasn’t gonna get drafted, he had his business . . . and then we blew it for him." However, Mark refuses to take responsibility, arguing, "he knew those cowboys had a gun, he knew what kind of a chance he was taking." By the end of the story, Bryon discovers the drugs Mark has been selling and realizes, "Mark had absolutely no concept of what was right and what was wrong; he didn’t obey any laws, because he couldn’t see that there were any." Bryon thinks about Cathy, M&M, and the suffering her family faces, feeling compelled to report Mark: "M&M was in the hospital, and maybe he was messed up for life—and Mark was selling the stuff that made him that way."