You told me that you’d never let me fall
Off into the unknown world of eighteen
That you’d never let me sway off the beaten path of
Teenage drivers and telephone chords that are
Wrapped around your petty fingers,
That have been brushed, laughing, by your smiling lips

And I didn’t know that you meant never.

You told me
“please don’t write those essays;
Please don’t send away your stories to universities
On the other side of the ocean so they can know you
Just as well as I do”
And I told you that you were being crazy and you laughed then

But maybe you should have told me you wouldn’t be laughing now.

And I suppose that your hat should have been warning enough
Since I’ve read Salinger since I was thirteen
And it’s not like people aren’t like books when it comes to relationships.
Just go with this plot, would you?
Just say that you’ll be alright without me until Christmas!

You told me that you’d never let me run off
Into a world you couldn’t save me from
And back then, yeah, that was nice of you back then when
All the world was just high school.

And I didn’t know you’d meant forever.

I didn’t know you thought I couldn’t grow up and
Be the same girl.

I didn’t know you thought I was that way,
And if I had, you wouldn’t be running off to the city now
Looking for something you can’t have.

They don’t keep love in museums.