IWWY 1

Lyrics

[Intro] [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY, almost whispered] You thought you were alone. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] Wasn't I? [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] No. I was with you. [Verse 1] [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I learned early how to answer when somebody called that name learned the clothes learned the posture learned the rules inside the game I watched every room before I entered worked out who I had to be and if everybody seemed convinced I figured that was enough for me I wasn't trying to disappear I was trying to survive I thought if I kept everything steady we might both get through alive [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] I know. I watched you learn the angles I felt every time you froze I knew why you changed your voice sometimes why you watched the way you posed You weren't building me a prison you were building us a wall because when you're six and nobody gives you words hiding doesn't feel like hiding at all It just feels like staying safe. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I thought you hated me. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] Never. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] Even when I stood in front of you? [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] Especially then. You stood where I couldn't. [Chorus] [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I was trying to keep us safe [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] I know I was with you [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I was trying to fit the shape [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] I know I was with you [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I thought every door could close if anybody saw too much [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] So I stayed close enough to hear you but far enough they couldn't touch [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I thought I carried this alone [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] You never did I was with you. [Verse 2 — MALE VOCAL ONLY] There were years I got so good at it I barely had to think I'd laugh before a silence so nobody looked too deep I knew exactly what they wanted before they even had to ask and sometimes I could almost forget how heavy it was to wear the mask But then I'd catch you in a mirror or hear something in a song and there you were not asking permission just reminding me you weren't gone [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] I wasn't gone. I was in every private future every room behind your eyes in every little thing you loved before you learned to compromise I was there when you were six years old before either of us knew why I was there when somebody finally saw me and didn't make me hide She said my name. [Continue unresolved] [MALE VOCAL ONLY — softer] Winnie. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] Yes. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] She knew you. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] She knew us. For a while you didn't have to stand between me and the rest of the world. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] And then she was gone. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] She left. She didn't disappear. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I didn't know what to do after that. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] So you did what you already knew. You protected us. [Chorus 2 — roles begin overlapping] [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I kept shutting doors [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] And I kept a light on [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I kept answering for us [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] And I kept my name [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I thought surviving meant somebody had to lose [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] No surviving meant we did what we had to do [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I thought I was keeping you away [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] You were carrying me through [MALE VOCAL ONLY] All that time? [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] All that time. I was with you. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] Then you started getting louder. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] No. You started listening. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] Fair enough. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY — slight smile in delivery] There you are. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I started noticing things I couldn't put back where they'd been the difference between being noticed and somebody actually seeing the way a name could feel like home the way a room could let me breathe the strange relief of understanding I didn't have to stop being me for you to be real. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] I was always real. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I know that now. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] You knew it then. You just didn't have the words. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] Maybe knowing isn't knowledge. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] But it was enough to keep looking. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I watched from half a step behind them. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] And learned every part. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I got so good at looking natural— [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] —you almost called it you. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] Almost. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] But you kept coming back. To the room inside. To the mirror. To the name. To me. [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I thought that meant I was failing. [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] It meant you remembered where home was. [Chorus 3 — fuller] [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I thought you were somewhere ahead of me [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] I was beside you [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I thought one day I'd finally find you [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] You already knew [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I thought I had to become someone to finally make this true [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] There was no one you had to become I was with you [MALE VOCAL ONLY] I thought someday I'd arrive [FEMALE VOCAL ONLY] We were already alive [Both, first time together] We just hadn't learned how to live in the same room. [Hold final harmony briefly; do not fade.]