Lyric

I learned to lead with the damage

Before the room goes cold

Put the fire in the first line

Hide the rest below

Swipe if it takes too long

Leave if I sound too real

I can feel the leaving

Before I say what I feel

There was more before the part

That sounded easy to judge

There was a whole quiet season

Under one sentence of blood

But I know how people listen

With one hand on the door

So I made the opening sharper

And buried what it was for

I watched the light fall off your face

The second I slowed down

So I turned the truth into something

That could survive the count

No One Stays for the Whole Thing

So I cut myself in half

Put the wound before the reason

Made the ending easy to have

No one waits for the long part

No one asks what it cost

If the feeling takes too much time

The feeling gets lost

This is where I would have told you

I was not angry first

I was tired

Then embarrassed

Then careful

Then worse

This is where I would have shown you

The line I never sent

Not because it was dramatic

Because it knew what I meant

But that part comes too late

That part asks too much

That part needs a listener

Who can stay with the hush

I am not trying to be interesting

I am trying to be intact

But everything has to open strong now

Or it does not get to last

Even pain needs a clean hook

Even grief needs shape

Even love gets shortened

If it cannot hold a gaze

So here is the short version

I was hurt

I made it neat

Here is the better version

I was scared

You would not read

Here is the real version

It begins before the screen

Before the first line

Before the part you thought was me

No One Stays for the Whole Thing

So I learned where to break

Put the sharp part near the doorway

Left the long part wide awake

No one waits for the whole truth

No one knows what they missed

When the story takes too long

And the leaving sounds like this

If you are still here

That is where it starts

Not at the hook

At the part after the part