Chapter 20 opens with Mark, Simon, Danny, and Frank drinking at a bar. Simon, ever the womanizer, is boasting about the afternoon he spent having a threesome with two girls before going on to find another. Frank likewise picks up a girl; the reader learns that his girlfriend June is currently in the hospital giving birth to their child.

Mark and Danny are both off heroin at this point and have rediscovered their sex drive. This is in a way stressful to them. Mark is jealous as he sees Simon, and even the psychopathic Frank, picking up girls. He says: “Thing is though, Spud, whin yir intae skag, that’s it. That’s aw yuv goat tae worry aboot” (132).

Mark eventually works up the nerve to approach a young woman after seeing her dismiss an overweight man; he’s described as having “a cheerfully undisguised prejudice against overweight people” (135). Mark and the girl, Dianne, start talking about music, disagreeing on their tastes. He ends up going home with Dianne, but she tells him he has to be quiet. He wonders what kind of roommates she has that might demand she sneak in guys at night.