“He won’t even look at us,” Fellis said.

“Would you leave him alone?” I said.

“Why do you defend that fucking kid so much?” Fellis said, but before I could say, “Because he’s not a dud like us,” Fellis stood and yelled to Meekew, who was halfway out the door.

“Doosis,” Fellis said. “Duna’gak?”

Meekew looked back, and then gave a nod. He said something to the three men, let the door shut, and then walked over to us.

“Who are those winooches?” Fellis said.

“Some guys from school,” Meekew said. “They’re cool. We came up to shoot pool.”

Fellis finished his beer and he set the frothy glass on the table. “Pound that,” he said to me, looking at my glass, and he stood. Fellis led Meekew outside.

But I drank my beer slowly, not wanting to deal with Fellis. With one sip left of my beer, I thought briefly about going out the back door, but from there I wondered where I would go. Not Mom’s house—I’d been avoiding there since she left to get better, and I didn’t want to hear the voice mails she left on her own machine wondering where I was, when I was going to visit her, and if I could please bring her cigarettes. And there was no way I was going to Tabitha’s apartment in Overtown where I’d been staying and trying to pay rent with her. We were over, and she left me and that apartment, which, like Mom’s house, I’d been avoiding too.

I wished the bartender would turn the light off until everyone left.

I put my jacket on and went out front. Fellis passed me his cigarette.

“Go do it after,” Fellis was saying to him, and Meekew looked up at the dark sky and blew cold breath. “Just walk with us a little ways. Split off at the bridge.”

And like that we started moving down the road to the rez. Fellis walked beside Meekew, and I walked sort of behind them, watching. Fellis was talking, asking him about the coke. Where he gets it from. How much he pays. How much he makes. Meekew didn’t say who he got the coke from, but he told Fellis how much he ended up with in the end, and Fellis whistled.

“You think about expanding?” Fellis said.

“Nah, man,” Meekew said. “This is temporary until med school.”

Over his shoulder, Fellis gave me a can-you-believe-this-Indian look.

We passed under the orange light and then by the red For Lease sign. Fellis stopped walking.

“Doctor Meekew,” Fellis said. “Let’s go down here. The woods are holding my beer.”

“I got to get going,” Meekew said. “I have three tests tomorrow.”

“I want to buy some of that medicine,” Fellis said. “It’ll only take a minute.”

“Fellis,” I said. “Didn’t you hear him?”

“One minute,” Fellis said. “Just one minute.”

The riverbank was dark. Fellis took out his iPhone and turned the flashlight on and looked for the bag. He pulled out a tall boy and cracked it open and offered it to Meekew, who said he was all set.