[LIVE CONCERT RECORDING, crowd noise waxes and wanes throughout] Verse 1 [low synth pulse, distant arena hum] You come home with tape on your fingers, winter caught in your coat. A split lip you keep laughing through, like pain is just something you fold. [soft, close vocal] You leave your skates by the doorway, my heels in a glittering line. Two kinds of damage drying there, yours honest, mine designed. [piano underneath] You don’t ask me to be brighter. You don’t flinch when I go quiet. You just make tea in my kitchen like love doesn’t need a siren. Pre-Chorus [voice uneasy, bass enters quietly] And I keep searching your kindness for the place where the knife goes in. You say, “I’m here,” like it’s simple. Baby, nothing’s ever been. [small pause] Chorus [muted drums, wide synths] You’ve got soft hands for somebody made of ice. I keep making exits out of every open light. [breathy backing vocals] You call it patience, I call it waiting for the crash. I’m not scared you’ll hurt me, I’m scared I’ll make you pay for that. [vocals almost breaking] I’m gonna fuck this up, I can feel it in my teeth. You’re loving me so gently, it feels like something leaving me. Verse 2 [beat pulls back, ice scrape texture] You kiss the side of my panic like it’s not contagious. Read my silence like a playbook, never make me say it. [soft but tense] I hate that you’re not jealous of the ghosts I keep around. You just sit beside the wreckage and don’t ask me to burn it down. [distant crowd noise] You missed a game to find me in a bathroom full of flash. I was half headline, half heartbeat, all mascara, no map. [voice fragile] And you didn’t call me dramatic. Didn’t try to make me small. You held my hands under the sink until the shaking stopped. Pre-Chorus 2 [colder, building] That should’ve felt like safety. That should’ve felt like grace. But I learned love as a locked room, not this much open space. [pause before chorus] Chorus [bigger drums, full but restrained] You’ve got soft hands for somebody made of ice. I keep making exits out of every open light. [layered vocals] You call it patience, I call it waiting for the crash. I’m not scared you’ll hurt me, I’m scared I’ll make you pay for that. [emotional, not belted] I’m gonna fuck this up, I can feel it in my teeth. You’re loving me so gently, it feels like something leaving me. Bridge [stripped, soft piano and low strings] You don’t know what I do to rooms that let me stay. I start moving all the furniture so grief can find its way. [voice close, ashamed] I pick fights with clean windows. I turn warmth into a dare. I make every good thing prove itself until it isn’t there. [small pause] And you, with your bruised shoulder, your stupid careful heart, keep standing in the doorway like I won’t tear you apart. [strings swell] I don’t want to be your lesson. I don’t want to be your scar. I don’t want to teach you how cruel beautiful girls are. Final Chorus [full production, emotional] You’ve got soft hands for somebody made of ice. I keep making exits out of every open light. [wide synths, restrained drums] You call it patience, I call it waiting for the crash. I’m not scared you’ll hurt me, I’m scared I’ll make you pay for that. [vocals almost breaking] I’m gonna fuck this up, I can feel it in my teeth. You’re loving me so gently, it feels like being seen. Outro [music fading, voice exposed] So don’t give me your jersey. Don’t leave your keys with mine. Don’t look at me like morning when I’m built from closing time. [quiet, direct] But if you stay past the warning, if you still choose the mess, hold me like you know it hurts to be loved without a threat. [fade into silence]
