- Black is frustrated because he says he can't understand it: Death is never about nothing, and he wishes he could find the words that would reach White's heart.
- Black mocks White's idea that his reasons for committing suicide are somehow loftier than other people's—he wants to get him in the "trick bag."
- White says the "trick bag" seems to be a way of just sitting around and sharing the misery of humanity for no reason.
- Black claims that White's too smart for him; he's able to keep twisting around intellectually, so nothing sticks. The junkies Black normally deals with aren't close to committing suicide—they just want another fix—and he can't understand what White won't give up.
- White says it took a lot of work to get where he is, so maybe he just won't give up giving up.
- He says it's not the fact that everything is temporary that bums him out (although everything does have an expiration date), it's that he feels like his courage in the face of life has become meaningless. It's not getting him anywhere, and going on isn't doing anything for him, so death is the only option left.
- Black asks White what the worst thing is that ever happened to him, and White claims it was Black rescuing him. Before that, though, it was probably hurting someone else.
- But White says the only lesson to learn from that is not to get close to anyone.