The Price of Peace

VERSE 1

Ten years of secrets, now they're weapons in your hand,

We were built like sisters, but we fought like it was planned.

Two dogs barking at the edge of the Silver Lake,

While we were drowning in a war for attention's sake.

Your cat has my cat's eyes, a bloodline in the fur,

But you only loved the quiet girl you wish I still were.

I spent a decade apologizing for fires I didn't start,

Just to keep a piece of a ghost inside my heart.

PRE-CHORUS

I learned to read your silence,

I learned to bite my tongue,

I learned that being older

Didn't mean you were always right.

I kept shrinking into pieces

Just to keep us intertwined,

But every time I disappeared,

You called it keeping peace.

CHORUS

I was your little puppy living in your long shadow,

Following your lead through the deep and the shallow.

But I found my big girl voice and you lost your mind,

You couldn't handle the woman I was meant to find.

You traded forever for a temper tantrum fit,

Because I finally said "no" and I actually meant it.

Now I'm wearing your sweatshirt but I'm shedding your skin,

Letting a new kind of sisterhood finally begin.

VERSE 2

I remember all the nights I tried to make it right,

Choosing every careful word, rehearsing every fight.

I could feel you getting colder every time I grew,

Like becoming who I was was somehow hurting you.

You knew all my mistakes, you knew the girl I'd been,

Every scar and every secret I was carrying within.

But somehow knowing everything still wasn't seeing me,

You loved the version of me that never disagreed.

I was always the one who had to cross the line,

Swallowing my feelings just to keep you satisfied.

And maybe I was loyal, maybe I was scared,

Maybe I confused being needed with being cared for.

PRE-CHORUS

I learned to read your silence,

I learned to bite my tongue,

I learned that being older

Didn't mean you were always right.

I kept shrinking into pieces

Just to keep us intertwined,

But every time I disappeared,

You called it keeping peace.

CHORUS

I was your little puppy living in your long shadow,

Following your lead through the deep and the shallow.

But I found my big girl voice and you lost your mind,

You couldn't handle the woman I was meant to find.

You traded forever for a temper tantrum fit,

Because I finally said "no" and I actually meant it.

Now I'm wearing your sweatshirt but I'm shedding your skin,

Letting a new kind of sisterhood finally begin.

POST-CHORUS

And I don't hate you,

I just don't need you

To tell me who I'm supposed to be.

I don't blame you,

But I won't chase you,

Just to make you comfortable with me.

VERSE 3

She knows every version, the puppy and the Queen,

Closer in two years than we had ever been.

She saw the messy parts and never made me hide,

She didn't need me smaller just to stand by my side.

You had a decade to see me, but she saw me in a day,

She never asked me to become somebody else's way.

And maybe that's the difference I was too afraid to name:

Love doesn't have to hurt you just to prove that it remained.

She laughs at all my stories, even ones I've told before,

She doesn't keep a scoreboard or remind me what I'm for.

There's no walking on the eggshells, no guessing what went wrong,

Just two women finding out that maybe we belong.

BRIDGE — BUILDING

So here's to the little girl

Who thought she had to earn her place.

Here's to every apology

That never should've left her face.

Here's to the woman in the mirror

Who finally looked back and said,

"You don't have to disappear

For somebody else to love you."

And here's to every door that closed

When I was begging it to stay.

Some endings aren't a punishment—

They're how you find your way.

BREAKDOWN

I don't need to be the quiet girl.

I don't need to play pretend.

I don't need to lose myself

Just to call somebody family again.

If you ever loved me,

I hope someday you'll understand:

I wasn't trying to leave you—

I was finally trying to stand.

FINAL CHORUS — BIG

I was your little puppy living in your long shadow,

Following your lead through the deep and the shallow.

But I found my big girl voice and you lost your mind,

You couldn't handle the woman I was meant to find.

You traded forever for a temper tantrum fit,

Because I finally said "no" and I actually meant it.

Now I'm wearing your sweatshirt but I'm shedding your skin,

Letting a new kind of sisterhood finally begin.

She knows every version, the puppy and the Queen,

Closer in two years than we had ever been.

You had a decade to see me, but she saw me in a day,

And I'm finally speaking in a voice you can't take away.

OUTRO

So I'll keep the old memories,

But I won't live inside them.

I'll keep the little puppy,

But she doesn't have to hide again.

Ten years of secrets

Don't get to write my ending.

The girl you thought you knew

Is gone.

The woman you couldn't handle

Is finally here.

And for the first time in my life,

I'm not apologizing for her.