Intro Same block. Same playground fence. Some friendships feel permanent when you’re young. But time doesn’t keep promises. ⸻ Verse 1 Preschool pictures, dirt on our shoes Two kids running with nothing to lose Trading cards by the schoolyard gate Talking big dreams like we’d both be great Sleepovers laughing past midnight shows Sneaking snacks nobody knows Swore we’d stay close till the end of days Two boys certain we’d find our way High school halls and the final bell Different roads calling us somewhere else No bad blood, no reason why Just two lives slowly passing by. ⸻ Chorus 1 We were kids running wild in the summer heat Two young shadows on the same cracked street Back when the world felt wide and sweet Before life knocked us off our feet Two boys laughing in the evening sun Certain the worst days would never come. ⸻ Verse 2 Years went quiet like dust on a shelf Till one afternoon I saw him myself Outside a store by a flickering sign A man asking strangers for spare change and time Hat pulled low, jacket worn thin Hands that trembled from something within Took a second look to see the truth That broken man was the boy from my youth Same blue eyes but the light was gone Like a house where the power’s been drawn My childhood brother on the concrete seat Holding a paper cup out to the street. ⸻ Chorus 2 We were kids running wild in the summer heat Now you’re shaking on the same cracked street Back then the world felt wide and sweet Now you’re staring at strangers’ feet Two boys laughing in the evening sun Now I barely know what you’ve become. ⸻ Verse 3 I remembered pictures I’d seen online Two little kids and a wife that shined Backyard grills and birthday cakes Every post showing the life he’d made Saw them once in the park that spring Kids on swings and everything He looked proud like a man who’d won Standing tall in the afternoon sun Then something broke behind the scene The kind of fall nobody sees Marriage split like a fault in stone Turning a warm house into a war zone Courtroom lights and papers signed Money draining little by little with time Blue collar hands working long days Barely keeping debt away. ⸻ Chorus 3 We were kids running wild in the summer heat Now you’re fading on the same cracked street Back when the world felt wide and sweet Now you’re fighting just to sleep Two boys laughing in the evening sun Now you’re drowning while I keep moving on. ⸻ Verse 4 First came whiskey to quiet the storm Then pills to keep the darkness warm Years rolled on, the street got hard Winter nights under frozen stars Kids grew older, passed him by Sometimes wouldn’t meet his eyes Mind worn thin from cold and rain Ghosts circling in his brain People said it was bound to end Just another life that couldn’t mend Till one morning word got spread Paramedics found him dead. ⸻ Final Chorus We were kids running wild in the summer heat Two young shadows on the same cracked street Back when the world felt wide and sweet Before I took the life you used to keep. Two boys laughing in the evening sun… Now only one walks under it. ⸻ Final Verse (Hard Twist) There’s something nobody knows. Those family pictures I used to see The backyard grill, the laughing tree The house, the life he used to own That place became my home. His wife said she was done with him Said I was someone she could begin again with Those kids that once sat on his knee Started calling another man “me.” While he was falling piece by piece I stepped into his empty seat The brother I grew up beside… Lost everything the day I arrived.
