Thought You Knew Me Better

[Intro] Yeah Breathe in Breathe out I thought you knew me better (better) I thought you knew me better (better) [Verse 1] I’m angry that I’m measured by a script I never read Shadow expectations hanging right above my head Silent conversations turning concrete in your mind You never brought ’em to me when there still was time You let your worries grow into a guilty verdict You skipped the questions, went straight to the final wording I carried months of weight, all the chaos, all the doubt And still you took my motives and you started flipping ’em around I’m frustrated that you want clear lines from a blur You want a simple story from a world that never does Undefined scope, rules that change in the night But later all that chaos somehow vanishes from sight You edit out the shifting, you erase the moving ground You say I lost the focus while I built what you got now You saw the shape, the scaffolds, the diagrams and plans But not the nights I bled for it, the strain inside my hands [Chorus] You saw the walls but you missed the weather You read the script but you skipped the letter You saw the work but you missed the pressure I thought you knew me, thought you knew me better You saw the frame but you missed the center You saw the wave but you missed the swimmer You saw the load but you missed the bearer I thought you knew me, thought you knew me better [Verse 2] I feel unseen, like every win turned into air Like the things I kept from breaking disappeared because they’re there If I keep the world from falling, you forget it could collapse You forget I held it steady while you’re studying the cracks The weight I made look easy got deleted from the tape The space I built for others got erased when you got late Soon as frustration entered, all the memory went dark Every quiet rescue I had done lost its mark I feel hurt that your opinion cuts this deep in my skin You drew a different version of me, called that image my sin You interpreted my silence as a story you preferred You never asked my meaning, just rewrote me with your words Questioned my intention when intention was my fuel I poured myself in trying, still you read me like a fool I’m tired of the defense, tired standing in the light Proving I’m not hollow to the people I ignite [Chorus] You saw the walls but you missed the weather You read the script but you skipped the letter You saw the work but you missed the pressure I thought you knew me, thought you knew me better You saw the frame but you missed the center You saw the wave but you missed the swimmer You saw the load but you missed the bearer I thought you knew me, thought you knew me better [Bridge] Trance in my veins, I’m looping what you never said (never said) You turned concern into a story living in your head (in your head) You drew my outline with the failures that I fear the most (fear the most) You never asked me how I saw the fire you called a ghost (called a ghost) You told me, “Work the way you work the best,” then judged the way I move You held me to a window that you never stepped into You said that you want clarity, transparency in full But the light you shined on me never bent back toward you [Verse 3] If there was a missing piece, a blocker on the line A path you couldn’t follow, some deliverable in time I needed that in daylight, I needed that in words Not discover months of tension in a single, sharpened burst If you held that quiet anger, why’d you only let it out When accusation felt like comfort, felt like power, felt like clout? Why’d you make me read your mind for needs you never shared? Expect me to be psychic just to prove that I care? I’m hurt ’cause I believed that the trust ran deep I thought you’d assume intention before letting it leak Care before neglect, questions before the blame But you wrote a tiny fable and you stapled it to my name [Chorus] You saw the walls but you missed the weather You read the script but you skipped the letter You saw the work but you missed the pressure I thought you knew me, thought you knew me better You saw the frame but you missed the center You saw the wave but you missed the swimmer You saw the load but you missed the bearer I thought you knew me, thought you knew me better [Verse 4] What hurts ain’t the critique, it’s the collapse of what I gave Months of effort, sacrifice, and every quiet save All compressed into a story where I drifted, where I strayed Like I walked off my own duty, like I let it all decay Tonight I searched for proof that I failed you in the end Thought I’d find a smoking gun, something I could’t defend But all I saw was missing talks, tangled lines, unclear demands Ambiguity and guesses where there should have been our plans Why am I the one on trial for proving I meant well When my life has been a pattern of pulling people out of hell? I carried all that good faith in the marrow of my bones Yet I’m standing here explaining why I never meant you harm [Outro] Hypnotic in my chest, I replay every letter