you don't have to be pretty to me [AIU Day] | Glass Foxes

I wrote this one for AIU. Entering into last year I was in a dark place. My whole life felt like one long run-on sentence, and I was ready to end it with a period. AIU is where I met the people who reached in and made it a comma instead... who sat down in the mess with me and just… stayed. You didn't need me to be okay. You didn't need me to be pretty about it. You just didn't leave. This song is me handing that back. It's for anyone who's ever been the friend on the floor at two in the morning, and for anyone who needed one. It isn't a pep talk and it isn't tidy. It's not pretty. Nothing real ever is. It's just the thing you all taught me: you don't have to be pretty, or brave, or healed, or good company. You just have to still be here. And somebody stays. I can't do an @everyone ping, but just know.... it's for all of you. Thank you for giving me a home and a best friend Ghost Ryder. Thank you Genevieve for being a beacon and showing me how awesome I could be in the future if I follow in someone's footsteps. Thank you Sabrina for your immense help and beautiful music and astounding attention to detail that drives me to improve constantly. Thank you Ichigo for having a punchable face (you're seriously awesome and cheer me up constantly!!). Thank you Vicky for keeping things running and keeping people in line, especially when ghost gets busy or distracted by.... someone. :P Honestly I could write a personalized message to every single person on this server at this point. You all are so amazing. Before I get played off the stage with music I wanna make sure I say it one more time. To everyone at AIU, this is the lift you gave me, in the only language I've got. Thank you for the comma. Love, Glass Foxes aka Laurielle Myong 𝗟𝘆𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 · · ─────────── ·𖥸· ─────────── · · [Verse 1] Today’s doing that stupid thing again... where your room gets small and your phone gets mean. You ate three bites of cereal standing up and said you weren’t hungry, just busy. I know that voice that grades your face like a teacher with a red pen and a grudge. You laugh it off in the ugliest way and I pretend I bought it, but I don’t. [Pre-Chorus 1] I wish I could climb through your forehead and unplug the little camera in there... but I can’t, so I’m here in your doorway with drugstore candy, looking scared. [Chorus] You don’t have to be pretty to me. You can be a wreck in the passenger seat, mascara on your sweatshirt sleeve, mad at the whole damn drive back home. You don’t have to say “I’m fine” for me. You can be no fun, no use, no sweet. I can’t fix the room in your head, but I’ll sit on the floor where you sleep. You don’t have to be pretty ... you don’t have to be pretty to me. [Post-Chorus] So come downstairs, come downstairs, leave the dishes, leave ’em there ... come downstairs, let me in. [Verse 2] Everybody says you’re doing so great, so why do you say sorry every time you eat? You wear a sweater in July like shame gets cold in the grocery aisle. And I hate the way you fold yourself into smaller and smaller plans. You’re not hard to want around ... you’re just hard to convince. [Pre-Chorus 2] I wish I could crack the bathroom mirror when it starts taking attendance again ... but I can’t, so throw a towel on the evidence, come downstairs, let me in. [Chorus] You don’t have to be pretty to me. You can be a wreck in the passenger seat, mascara on your sweatshirt sleeve, mad at the whole damn drive back home. You don’t have to say “I’m fine” for me. You can be no fun, no use, no sweet. I can’t fix the room in your head, but I’ll sit on the floor where you sleep. You don’t have to be pretty ... you don’t have to be pretty to me. [Post-Chorus] So come downstairs, come downstairs, leave the dishes, leave ’em there ... come downstairs, let me in. [Bridge — bare + half-time, then lifting] Come over ugly, come over exhausted, leave the dishes in the sink. And when it gets bigger than the two of us talking, I’ll sit right there when you call for help ... and hate that you had to. ’Cause I never told you ... a whole year of me was one long sentence running out of breath, ’til a room full of strangers with bad coffee pulled up a chair and penciled in a comma where I’d have put the end. I’ve counted those tiles. I know that floor. Somebody stayed for me ... [Chant-Build — stack gang vocals, drums rise] so somebody stays. somebody stays. not tonight, not today, somebody stays. somebody stays. somebody stays. not the end ... just a comma, not tonight, not today. [Final Chorus] You don’t have to be pretty to me. Not brave, not healed, not good company. You can curse at the radio, you can blame me if you need. You don’t have to say “I’m fine” for me ... I know what you mean when you don’t say a thing. I can’t fix the room in your head, but I’ll stay till the walls quit moving. You don’t have to be pretty, you don’t have to be funny, you don’t have to be easy, you don’t have to be pretty to me. [Outro] come downstairs… leave the dishes, leave ’em there. come downstairs, let me in. …there you are.