You Were My Almost

(I can’t write in the exact voice of Gracie Abrams, Conan Gray, or Taylor Swift, but here’s an original song that captures their intimate confessional indie-pop style.)

Intro

late texts at 2 AM, you swore you weren't alone, (not alone)

but your silence had its own tone, yeah

Verse

I saved your joke about forever, folded under my jeans

played it loud in empty rooms, pretending it was clean

you wore my sweater when your friends came by, like a secret that you kept

left coffee rings on my favorite book, then swore you never slept

Pre-chorus

and I learned to read the pauses, like they were love letters in code

said I wouldn't be the one to wait, but I memorized your road

you said "stay" like a suggestion, said "maybe" like a plan

I traced the map of every could-have-been with my shaking hands

Chorus

you were my almost, you were my maybe, you were my half-sung song

you were the cigarette I hid and promised I would quit when you were gone (quit when you were gone)

you called it nothing, I called it timestamped forever, oh-oh

you were my almost, you were my maybe, you were the why I can't forget

Verse

there's a voicemail where you laugh like rain is nothing to regret

I press repeat until the ache becomes a silhouette

your keys still hang where keys don't hang — like you might come back

I left the light on like an RSVP that never got a track

Pre-chorus

I practiced leaving rooms like I could leave you in them too

said I wouldn't write your name on things that used to belong to you

but the microwave still remembers your mug, the barstool knows your weight

and every plan you never made with me is patient as my waiting state

Chorus

you were my almost, you were my maybe, you were my half-sung song

you were the cigarette I hid and promised I would quit when you were gone (quit when you were gone)

you called it nothing, I called it timestamped forever, oh-oh

you were my almost, you were my maybe, you were the why I can't forget

Bridge

I saw you on a street that used to know my shoes, you looked the same, you smiled (uh-huh)

I said a thing I shouldn't say — I said, "did you ever feel like I was real?"

you shrugged like it was a weight you never wanted, like a wind-up toy unspun

said, "I didn't know how to keep you, I was keeping everyone else" — and then you were gone

and I laughed at myself, at the gullible parts that still kept calling

I laughed and then I cried and then I left the light on like I was stalling

I texted you a question I already knew the answer to: "are you okay?"

and your read receipt felt like betrayal spelled out in blue, yeah

Chorus

you were my almost, you were my maybe, you were my half-sung song

you were the cigarette I hid and promised I would quit when you were gone (quit when you were gone)

you called it nothing, I called it timestamped forever, oh-oh

you were my almost, you were my maybe, you were the