Late bus

Fogged glass

Forehead on the window

High-tops dangling in the aisle

Phone at 2%

City rolling in slow motion

Saw my face

Ghosted in the plexiglass reflection

Eyes red from the after-school hustle

Smelling fry grease

Chalk dust

Cheap cologne

Mom's voice

Folded in a voicemail I kept replaying

"Call when you land

Baby"

I was only five stops from home

I grew up on dial tones and loose change

Coins on the counter

Prayers in the couch

Static from the bedroom radio

Teaching me the long way 'round

I grew up off half-finished notebooks

Late-night light from the hallway door

If I never had much

I had hope

Now I'm coming of age

Asking life for more (oh yeah)

Corner store

Owner knew my name

But not my plans

Trading summer for a stack of errands

Bikes leaned crooked by the ice machine

Hand-me-down

Dreams two sizes too baggy

Still I wore 'em out in every mirror

Practicing a voice that didn't crack on truth

Friends split

Some chased smoke

Some chased sirens

We skipped rocks over rumors and fences

Promised we'd all make it

Some only halfway did

I grew up on dial tones and loose change

Coins on the counter

Prayers in the couch

Static from the bedroom radio

Teaching me the long way 'round

I grew up off half-finished notebooks

Late-night light from the hallway door

If I never had much

I had hope

Now I'm coming of age

Asking life for more (oh yeah)

Now the late-night host says my hometown's name

Between the scores and the weather report

I'm laughing in an apartment I pay for

With words that used to crowd in the margins

I grew up on dial tones and loose change

Coins on the counter

Prayers in the couch

Static from the bedroom radio

Singing me a map out the dark

I grew up off half-finished notebooks

But I'm writing on the front page now

If I never had much

I had hope

Still that same kid

Just louder somehow (oh yeah)

I grew up on dial tones and loose change

Coins on the counter

Prayers in the couch

Static from the bedroom radio

Teaching me the long way 'round

I grew up off half-finished notebooks

Late-night light from the hallway door

If I never had much

I had hope

Now I'm coming of age

Asking life for more (oh yeah)