<P> As he gets better, Bryon visits Charlie's grave, and feels slightly better about everything . Bryon then takes Cathy to the hippie house, since M&M might be there . They find him just having gone on a very bad LSD trip: he is out - of - his - mind terrified and sick . They take him to the hospital, where Mr. Carlson meets up with them . </P> <P> Upon returning to his house after dropping Cathy off, Bryon finds a tube of pills under Mark's bed, and realizes that Mark has been pushing drugs . He calls the police on his own best friend and brother . After seeing what happened to M&M, Bryon cannot stand to think that Mark could have been selling substances to young, innocent kids . Mark returns and is incredulous at what Bryon has done . The cops then come and take him away . Bryon testifies at Mark's subsequent trial, but Mark is sentenced to five years in state prison . Bryon and Cathy drift apart soon after; Bryon's actions affect everything he does, and he still cannot justify his drastic decision to call the police on Mark . He tries to visit Mark, but Mark has been causing trouble, and so it takes a while for him to finally get to see him . In the meantime, he finds out that Cathy is dating Ponyboy . While visiting Mark, Bryon realizes that Mark could likely kill him out of hatred . He realizes that he has become a mixture of all his experiences and the experiences of people around him, and is much more confused now, as an adult, than when he was a child . </P> <P> The book, like Rumble Fish, takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Hinton's hometown and the setting of her first book, The Outsiders . However, unlike Rumble Fish, Ponyboy Curtis, the main character of The Outsiders, appears in That Was Then, This Is Now and even takes part in the events surrounding the dance and killing spree . </P> <P> The characters of Tim and Curly Shepard from The Outsiders also appear, as does their sister Angela, who is original to That Was Then, This Is Now . Randy, who was in The Outsiders, also appears as a hippie in this book, which is appropriate to those who have read or seen The Outsiders, as Randy is an affluent kid who feels guilty about the class division and becomes repulsed by it, which is the background and beliefs of many hippies . In Tex, there is a brief description of Mark and Cathy, who are original to That Was Then, This Is Now . </P>

Is that was then this is now a sequel to the outsiders