[Verse 1]
I still take the long way home
Past the cinema on Clare Street
Where we used fake IDs
And talked like we were already legends
Now the posters change every week
And the girl at the counter’s younger than
The memories I keep rehearsing
Like they still belong to me
There’s a version of me in that doorway
Hands shaking from too much coffee
Certain everybody important
Was just late to the party
[Pre-Chorus]
But the years moved quiet
No warning sound
Just little things disappearing
One by one by one
[Chorus]
I don’t miss anybody
Not the way I should
I miss how I laughed back then
Like the future was good
There’s an old version of me
Still waiting outside some venue
Checking his reflection in the glass
Like he’s got somewhere to get to
And I wanna tell him
“Take the train, don’t walk”
“Call her back”
“Write the damn songs”
But he fades when the doors close
And the city moves on
Yeah, I’m living in the epilogue
Of someone I thought I’d become
[Verse 2]
The landlord painted the hallway
Covered every mark we left
Now the building smells clinical
Like nobody’s ever slept there
I found my old notebooks yesterday
Half the pages still blank
Just titles and crooked sentences
And plans I never became
Funny how you can lose yourself
Without a single dramatic moment
Just saying “maybe next year”
Until your life starts folding
[Pre-Chorus]
Now my friends speak carefully
Like we’re all pretending
This is how we pictured it
In our early twenties
[Chorus]
I don’t miss anybody
I miss being seen
Before survival and routine
Turned cinematic dreams to steam
There’s an old version of me
Still buzzing every doorbell
Certain love and art would happen
If he just stayed out long enough
And I wanna tell him
“You were not naïve”
“You were alive”
“There’s a difference, believe me”
But he fades when the train comes
Into the underground hum
Yeah, I’m living in the epilogue
Of someone I thought I’d become
[Bridge]
Sometimes I catch him in reflections
Shop windows, black phone screens
In the second before recognition
When I almost look eighteen
And it hurts in such a small way
Not enough to make a scene
Just enough to ruin Thursdays
And every song in E minor
[Final Chorus]
I don’t miss anybody
That’s the strangest part
Just the hunger I had for living
Before everything got hard
There’s an old version of me
Still waiting in the cold light
Outside a venue that closed years ago
On a nowhere Friday night
And I wanna stand beside him
Just once before he goes
Say “you don’t become somebody”
“you just keep carrying hope”
But the streetlights blur around him
Like a memory half-undone
Yeah, I’m living in the epilogue
Of someone I thought I’d become
[Outro]
Still take the long way home
Past the cinema on Clare Street
Like maybe he’ll be there smoking
Looking back at me