William's head snapped up. "I haven't really know anything else. No one's been there to show me how to act with people who don't want to use me in some way, or humiliate me. Do you think it's easy?" He felt tears welling up at the corners of his eyes. No! He dashed them away with his sleeve. "I want to believe there's some other way. I want to believe in people. But even if I did, I wouldn't know the right way to act." He shook his head and stiffened his back, trying desperately to put up his walls again.