Living With a Stranger

[Intro — dark piano/acoustic; distant clean guitar; no full drums] [Verse 1 — low close-mic baritone; guarded, conversational] I know the way you take your coffee Know which side you take in bed Know every word you swore you meant And every one you took back instead Don't look at me like I'm the problem Don't ask me why I changed You gave me every reason Not to look at you the same You still walk through that front door Like nothing ever went wrong And I hate that part of me still waits For the person I knew to come home [Pre-Chorus 1 — chest resonance rising; pressure building] I know the person you once were I don't know who you are now How can somebody look the same And be so damn different somehow? [Chorus 1 — first heavy opening; chest voice, controlled rasp] I'm living with a stranger In the house we called a home Lying right beside you Still sleeping all alone Same eyes, same lips Same name upon the door But you ain't the one I fell for Anymore You never packed a suitcase But somehow you were gone And I'm still here getting angry At what I'm holding on Same bed, same rings But everything feels wrong I'm living with a stranger And the stranger never left home [Verse 2 — rougher intimacy; restrained bitterness] Don't tell me that you're sorry Like I haven't heard enough You don't get to break... The trust we had Then tell me this is love Some days I wanna scream at you Some days I don't feel a thing Some nights... I wanna throw it all away Some nights I reach for you in my sleep That's the part that makes me hate this That's the part I can't explain I can miss the way you loved me And still hate what you became [Pre-Chorus 2 — bitter, tighter phrasing] I know the person you once were I don't know who you are now Funny how someone so familiar Can make you want to shut them out [Chorus 2 — wider and heavier; stronger rasp] I'm living with a stranger In the house we called a home Lying right beside you Still sleeping all alone Same eyes, same lips Same name upon the door But you ain't the one I fell for Anymore You never packed a suitcase But somehow you were gone And I'm still here getting angry At what I'm holding on Same bed, same rings But everything feels wrong I'm living with a stranger And the stranger never left home [Bridge — restrained start → full anger peak] I know the way you used to love me I know the way you changed It's hard to look at someone close And barely know their face And God, I wish I hated you That would make this easier But I still see who you used to be Every time you get too near So don't tell me we're okay now Don't tell me time will make it right You don't get to wreck what we had Then crawl back into bed at night [Breakdown — sudden near-silence; dry low vocal, almost spoken] You never left the house You just left me You never said goodbye You just stopped choosing me And I hate that I still want What you used to be [Final Chorus — dense studio arrangement; colder, resolved vocal] I'm living with a stranger In the house we called a home Lying right beside you Still sleeping all alone Same eyes, same lips Same name upon the door But you ain't the one I fell for Anymore You never packed a suitcase But somehow you were gone And I'm done making excuses For what you've become Same bed, same rings But everything feels wrong I'm living with a stranger And the stranger never left home [Outro — stripped to one instrument; low resigned vocal; silence] You never left the house You just left me And maybe that's what hurts the most... You're still here... But the one I loved... Is gone...