The Graduates Songtext

von Speedy Ortiz

We were the French club dropouts
But we never got excused from class
The secretary must have been high
To turn a blind eye on us sneaking out back
And we were pregnant on the balcony
And you caught me with a cigarette
I never put the thing on my lips
Just crushed it and spit on where I laid it to rest

I was the best at being second place
But now I'm just the runner-up
At being the second one you think of every day
Before you go back to one

We were the law school rejects
So we quarrelled at the bar instead
Shot out in four words or less
You want a jail, you want a mess, you have the right to drink less
Then we were floating on a balcony
And I fell into a trampoline
I never should've looked for a hand
From an invisible pushmi-pullyu pushin' on me

I was the best at being second place
But now I'm just the silver you dread
And only in the shape of a bullet
Am I ever the shape you see when you wake up dead

So will you cauterize the bleeding or bastardize the meaning?
I'm the one worth seeing
As a waif, a friend, I guess that's the extent
More than assisted when you cut inside the paper
To project it from the lighthouse and eject it out into the void

I was the best at being second place
Oh, I was the best at being second place
I was the best at being second place
Oh, I was the best at being second place
I was the best at being second place
But now I'm just the runner-up
And only the second one you think of every day