Before

You hid me in your dorm room

It was Halloweekend, I just flew

Across the globe, twenty-two hours just to see you

Just to barely fit on your twin-sized bed

And talk about your cool new friend

Who I never met

Who you dated as soon as I left

Carolina autumn

It had been a year since I saw you, since we ended it

Had a year to grow into the girl you always wanted, now we're

Holding hands, as not quite friends, but not quite lovers

But we'll just pretend

You say, "It's complicated to make amends"

Well, is that the way that we're headed then?

And you couldn't answer me

Though you could pull me in while I brushed my teeth

And let your hands both freely speak

Like I wasn't ever gonna leave

You were all I'd ever known

And now I'm supposed to love you from a distance

Like it's nothing, like it's instant

And you say, "Let's just see where this goes"

And I don't know how or why you seem just fine

'Cause I'm having to grasp that you're somehow not mine anymore

It's so cruel how things are only almost like they were before

(Ah, ah, ah) Like they were before

(Ah, ah, ah) Like they were before

(Ah, ah, ah) Like they were before

We walk downtown and it's charming

You're alarmingly disarming

Yeah, we've got forty-eight hours left

Before I fly back to my death

While you stay just fine and feel alive

South of the Mason-Dixon line

Where everyone closes shop at nine

Where you could somehow finally find

What you were desperately looking for

Funny how you thought that was gonna be New York

With our chalkboard walls and slanted floors

Oh, we could've had that and so much more

Ask your new lover what it's like to be given

A real fighting chance before you wish her good riddance

Did anything ever really count?

Or was I just a two-year practice round?

You were all I'd ever known

And now I'm feeling stupid, you're forbidden

They say, yeah, we were something, too bad we were children

Ooh, I don't know where to go

And I don't know how or why you seem just fine

'Cause I'm looking at you and God knows you're not mine anymore

It's so cruel how things will never be the way they were before

Like they were before

It's almost just like how it was before

But it's not anymore