She gave him a look that made it clear she would have reached out and touched him then, if she could. "Oh, baby, don't be like that. I didn't mean nothing by it. It weren't pity, if that's what you were thinking. I know what hard's like, and I wouldn't want pity from no one either," she explained, then looked at him with an intelligence past her years. "You willing to listen to something from a girl who's been 'round more than you have?"