[Intro - arpeggios, breath, close]

[Verse 1 - hushed]
Mascara somewhere down around my jaw
Hand already on the door
Every exit I had ever used
Was waiting like before
And he didn't grab my arm
He didn't block the hall
He asked me from across the room
Which isn't grabbing me at all

[Chorus - barely bigger, aching]
I'd like to be your friend
If that's allowed
He said it like the asking
Was too big to say out loud
Every hand that ever reached for me
Reached out to take me down
Nobody ever asked before
If wanting was allowed

[Verse 2 - piano enters]
The arithmetic of my whole life
Ran simple, ran the same
Every person crossing rooms toward me
Was pricing out a claim
And here's a man in sock feet
Turning down the only thing I sell
Asking for the part I hid
The part I couldn't tell

[Chorus]
I'd like to be your friend
If that's allowed
He said it to the wrapper
And meant the girl inside the shroud
Everyone had bought the cover
No one ever read me out loud
He asked to know the story
If that's allowed

[Bridge - whispered, his lines quoted]
And on the curb, breath showing, ears gone red
He made a speech that cost a week of nerve, he said
You're safe with me, from tonight on, whatever this turns out to be
Any trouble, any hour
You call me and I will come
I filed it with the lines men say
But he didn't have lines
He had vows
He just didn't know another way to talk

[Final Chorus - single harmony joins, brushed pulse]
I'd like to be your friend
If that's allowed
I gave him my real number
And I don't know why, out loud
But some deep unkilled believer
Handed him the means to keep his vow
And I rode home in my body
The whole way home in my body
For once, at home in my body
Because somebody asked if it was allowed

[Outro - voice and one note, fading]
If that's allowed
It was always allowed
It was waiting to be allowed