Before

NIKI

You hid me in your dorm room, it was Halloweekend
I just flew across the globe, 22 hours just to see you
Just to barely fit on your twin-sized bedAnd talk about your cool new friend
Who I never met, who you dated as soon as I left

Carolina autumn, it had been a year since I saw ya
Since we ended it, had a year to grow into the girl you always wanted
Now we′re holding hands
As not quite friends, but not quite lovers
Well, we'll just pretend
You say, "It′s complicated to make amends"
Well, is that the way that we're headеd, then?

And you couldn't answer me
Though you could pull mе in while I brushed my teeth
And let your hands both freely speak
Like I wasn′t ever gonna leave

You were all I′d ever known
And now I'm supposed to love you from a distance
Like it′s nothing, like it's instant
And you say, "Let′s just see where this goes"
And I don't know how or why you seem just fine
′Cause I'm havin' to grasp that you′re somehow not mine anymore
It′s so cruel how things are only almost like they were before

(Ah, ah, ah)
Like they were before (Ah, ah, ah)
Like they were before (Ah, ah, ah)
Like they were before (Ah, ah, ah)

We walk downtown and it's charming
You′re alarmingly disarming
Yeah, we've got 48 hours left before I fly back to my death
While you stay just fine and feel alive
South of the Mason-Dixon line
Where everyone closes shop at nine
Where you could somehow finally find

What you were desperately looking for
Funny how you thought that was gonna be New York
With our chalkboard walls and slanted floors
Oh, we could′ve had that and so much more
Ask your new lover what it's like to be given
A real fighting chance before you wish her, "Good riddance"
Did anything ever really count,
Or was I just a two-year practice round?

You were all I′d ever known
And now I'm feeling stupid, you're forbidden
They say yeah we were something, too bad we were children
Oh, I don′t know where to go
And I don′t know how or why you seem just fine
'Cause I′m lookin' at you and God knows you′re not mine anymore
It's so cruel how things will never be the way they were before

(Ah, ah, ah)
Like they were before (Ah, ah, ah)
It′s almost just like how it was before (Ah, ah, ah)
But it's not anymore