[Verse 1] I saw something move and my whole world stopped Tried to tell myself, calm down, but I could not Disappeared inside my head for a minute or two 'Cause every worst-case ending somehow leads to losing you I don't know how to hold you Without fearing the goodbye Don't know how to love something Without waiting for it to die You're my whole world, and maybe that's What scares me most of all The more that something matters The more there is to fall [Pre-Chorus] And I'm tired of being scared Of everything I can't control Tired of loving with a heart That thinks love always has to go [Chorus] So tell me, why would you stay? When my fear gets loud and I push you away When my throat gets tight and the words won't come And I'm convinced that eventually everyone runs You can tell me a thousand times That you're not leaving me behind But there's a voice inside my head That never believes what anybody says If the ones who should've loved me couldn't stay— Tell me, why would you stay? [Verse 2] I'm scared I'll do it all again Turn panic into walls Lose another best friend While I'm trying not to lose them at all But you learned the parts of me I thought would make you disappear You tried to understand the things That even I don't understand in here You found the mess and didn't run You saw the storm and stayed But somehow being loved like that Just makes me more afraid [Pre-Chorus] Because I know how this story goes Or at least I think I do People promise they're forever Until forever isn't true [Chorus] So tell me, why would you stay? When my fear gets loud and I push you away When my throat gets tight and the words won't come And I'm convinced that eventually everyone runs You can tell me a thousand times That you're not leaving me behind But there's a voice inside my head That never believes what anybody says If the ones who should've loved me couldn't stay— Tell me, why would you stay? [Bridge] Maybe I'm not really asking you Maybe I'm asking everyone who left Why they taught a little heart That love was something she'd have to beg to get Maybe every “don't leave me” Is an old wound underneath Maybe every time you hold me I'm fighting history And I hate that I can love you And still wait for you to go That I can know you care about me And somehow never know [Breakdown] My own father couldn't love me enough to stay So somewhere along the way I learned love has an ending I learned people walk away And now when somebody chooses me I search for the catch I wait for the moment They finally take it back [Final Chorus] So maybe you don't have to tell me why you stay Maybe I have to learn not to push you away Maybe love isn't measured by who I've lost And I don't have to keep paying somebody else's cost I won't believe it overnight That doesn't mean I can't still try When that voice says, “Nobody could ever love you,” Maybe I don't have to call it the truth I'm still scared you'll leave someday I'm still learning love doesn't have to end that way And maybe one day I won't have to ask— Why would you stay? [Outro] For tonight, you're still here For tonight, that's enough Maybe I don't have to understand Why I'm worthy of your love Maybe I can just Let you love me.
