(Intro)
Under a porch light, cicadas hum the truth,
Dusty two-lane, summer air, the night remembers youth.
A quiet kind of knowing that we never planned to keep,
Now you're standing on my lawn and I'm counting secrets I still keep.
(Verse 1)
We fell into a feeling, soft as a Sunday dawn,
You had a ring I couldn't touch, but the chemistry was strong.
There was distance in your silence, a space I couldn't close,
You walked back through that front gate and all the old ache rose.
(Pre-Chorus)
I tuck my words behind my laugh, pretend the past was kind,
But every time you lean in close, you lean right into mine.
(Chorus)
How do we just be friends? — tell me how you want me to,
How do we just be friends? — when everything still points to you.
You said we’d fit like summer and sun, but now you’re here again,
So tell me, please, how do we just be friends?
(Verse 2)
You were my easy secret, the reason I’d start to grin,
Late-night radio and whispered jokes, the light that lived within.
When you call me on my birthday, or slip and say my name,
It’s a warm and sudden thunder and I can’t pretend it’s tame.
(Pre-Chorus)
I fold the truth into a smile, I hide it from the dawn,
But every time your shadow falls, I feel what’s never gone.
(Chorus)
How do we just be friends? — tell me how you want me to,
How do we just be friends? — when everything still points to you.
You said we’d fit like summer and sun, but now you’re here again,
So tell me, please, how do we just be friends?
(Bridge)
Remember that porch-night phone call, the rain kept time with us,
You said, “If things were different,” like it was some harmless trust.
You said you saw us, two silhouettes in an honest light,
Then folded it away like a letter you refuse to write.
I watched the porchlight crack like the edges of my plans,
Held the line while you admitted what you’d never had the chance.
(Instrumental Break)
Warm acoustic strum, a pedal steel that weeps and flies,
Snare brushes on the backbeat, let the melody run wide.
(Chorus - Full)
How do we just be friends? — tell me how you want me to,
How do we just be friends? — when everything still points to you.
You said we’d fit like summer and sun, but now you’re here again,
So tell me, please, how do we just be friends?
(Chorus - Reprise, three-part harmony)
How do we just be friends? — (How do we just be friends?)
How do we just be friends? — (How do we just be friends?)
You said we’d fit like summer and sun, but now you’re here again,
So tell me, please, how do we just be friends?
(Outro)
Porch light fades to memory, the road unrolls its bends,
I tuck my heart inside my coat and ask the night again —
How do we just be friends?
