Growing Pains

The song opens on the aftermath of someone else, tear stained carpet and a white knuckled grip, six weeks out from a hurt she can neither forget nor forgive. Into that rawness arrives a gentler figure, someone who takes her out, teaches her to skate, and stays when she asks him to. Blood on the knees is the acceptable kind of hurt for once.

At its centre is an apology for not being ready, hating that she cannot love him yet and certain she is only in the way. He answers that he will not be here forever but that he will wait as long as it takes. The song sways out on that patience, wordless and aching, devotion in borrowed shoes staying up for the end of his shift.