South Of My First Crush

[Verse 1]
I still see her
Blue backpack
Chipped teeth
Fence by the playground
Dust on our knees
We traded secrets
Under a burned-out tree
I left that summer
But she never left me
[Chorus]
So I say I’m fine
I’m “just this way”
(yeah, that’s what I say)
Blame the wiring in my brain
When I push you all away
‘Cause I’m still stuck in that small school yard
With a girl I had to leave
No one gets close
No one gets far
South of my first crush
Is where my heart just
Doesn’t beat for anybody else
[Verse 2]
You ask me gently
“Have you ever felt it?”
I laugh too quickly
Change the subject
Call it a label
Like it’s just a phase
Truth is
I’m faithless
To anyone new I face
[Chorus]
So I say I’m fine
I’m “just this way”
(yeah, that’s what I say)
Blame the wiring in my brain
When I push you all away
‘Cause I’m still stuck in that small school yard
With a girl I had to leave
No one gets close
No one gets far
South of my first crush
Is where my heart just
Doesn’t beat for anybody else
[Bridge]
Maybe I’m wired cold
Maybe I’m just too loyal
To a ghost on a gravel road
Sunburnt
Stubborn
Spoiled
I don’t want your roses
I don’t want your bed
I just want the version of me
Who believed her when she said
[Chorus]
We’ll be best friends
We’ll never change
(but we always change)
Time pulled me out of frame
She’s frozen in my brain
So I’m still stuck in that small school yard
With a girl I had to leave
No one gets close
No one gets far
South of my first crush
Is where my heart just
Doesn’t beat for anybody else

pop, Emo pop ballad with female vocals; clean electric guitar arpeggios and soft pads in the verses, chorus explodes with distorted power chords, punchy drums, and stacked gang vocals on the hook. Start intimate and confessional, then widen into a cathartic, shout-along refrain; sprinkle subtle synths and octave harmonies to lift the last chorus., emo