Keith had been on the computer for over two hours. Connor finally got tired of waiting for him to get off and asked him the question that had been on his mind for the past couple of days.

"Hey, Keith, if I were to go on a diet, would you help me?"

"Yah, just a second," Keith muttered into the computer monitor. When he was done with whatever he was doing, he spun around in his swivel chair and looked up at Connor. "I'm sorry, what'd you say?"

"I need to lose some weight," Connor reiterated. "I'd like your help."

"Oh. Me?" Keith pondered that for a moment. "May I ask why?"

Connor made himself comfortable on the decrepit couch as they talked. "Well, see, I met this girl..."

"Aha!" Keith interjected. "That explains it all. Man, you don't waste any time, do you?"

"I'm not dating her yet," Connor explained. "And I probably never wil. But, you know, just in case. Besides, I could stand to shed a few pounds just for the sake of it."

"Fair enough. But why are you asking me?"

Because, thought Connor, you're one of my few friends who will help with an issue this personal without taking a chunk of my ego in exchange. But there were plenty of other reason that were easier to express. "Because... I want to know your secret. You must have a secret! How do you stay so skinny?"

"It's in my genes," Keith replied. "I can't gain weight no matter how hard I try. My whole family is like this; my older sister only weighs 85 pounds. And you should see my father! He's taller than me and weighs less."

"Oh."

"I'll try to help you anyway. Okay, let's see. How much do you weigh now?"

"I don't know," said Connor.

"Try weighing yourself on the bathroom scale?" Keith suggested.

"It only goes up to 280," Connor said sheepishly.

"But doesn't it keep spinning?" Keith asked. Connor shook his head and Keith grumbled. "Okay, well, you can't be too much more than that. We could start going to the weight room if you want. I always feel stupid going there, but I guess it wouldn't be so bad if we made it, like, a routine or something."

"Sure," said Connor.

Keith turned back to the computer, explaining, "I hope you don't think I'm rude, but I have a sale ending in two minutes. So tell me about this girl! Do I know her?"

"Nope. She doesn't go to HSU. Actually, this whole thing is pretty stupid. I'll probably never see her again, and there's no reason why she'd even be interested in me." Plus, she may already have been dating his boss, but he neglected to mention that. "She's just... I don't know. We hit it off right away. She's intelligent, mature and warm and friendly. And really hot. And she's--" He was about to say something about how Tracy lacked Lauralynn's temper, and perhaps some other undesirable qualities, but he didn't know that for sure. After all, he'd barely spent three hours with her. He didn't know her. And it wasn't wise to take wild guesses.

Keith ran his fingers through his shiny black hair as he busily clicked and scrolled. Connor couldn't tell if he was listening. It really didn't matter, he supposed. There was nothing more to tell. Keith reloaded the page he was on and whooped.

"Yeah! Fantastic Four number five closed at $975! Connor, check it out! This means..." Keith jotted down some figures on a piece of scratch paper, "...I have... earned... yup! My half of the rent next month. With cash to spare."

"With one comic book?" Connor asked incredulously.

"Well, no. This batch belongs to my cousin. I only get a 15% commission, and he gets the rest. But I've sold more than thirty of them since mid-March. This one sale got me $146."

"Cool. I wish I'd saved my comic books. But I inherited them from my brothers, and by the time they got all the way down to me, they were pretty beat up."

Keith nodded. "Beat-up comic books can be tough to sell. But if you know anyone who's trying to get rid of their collection, tell them I'll do it for them."

"I don't," Connor admitted. "Hey, now that you're Mr. Moneybags, you want to order a pizza for lunch?"

Keith smirked at him. "Just a minute ago you wanted to go on a diet. Now you're already thinking pizza."

"But it's lunchtime! Going on a diet doesn't mean swearing off food entirely," Connor reminded his roommate.

"How about if I cook us a nice, healthy stir-fry, Korean-style, instead?" Keith offered.

Connor agreed to that. As skinny as Keith was, he was an incredible cook... and Connor was gradually becoming familiar with some of the more exotic ingredients he used. He waited until Keith was done packaging the comic book and followed him into the kitchen to help chop vegetables.