Bicycle and 7-Eleven (version 2)

Verse

Cobwebs in the attic, old trophies stacked against the wall

Grandfather's pocket watch sitting there like a promise that he'd return at all

The screen door hinges creak like an apology when you open it up and step through

I carry my grandfather's old bicycle down to the corner store for the milk

Not because I'm helping but because the air feels thinner when I ride this far alone

He taught me how to change a tire and fix a broken chain

Said every small town had its own version of the same old story again

A 7-Eleven full of dust and humming neon lights

I buy two ice cream cones and sit on the curb until the stars are right

The clerk knows my name and asks how my grandmother's doing still

He says 'good kid' like he means it every time you come back through the doors

Every memory we share is one I'll keep past the end of my own road

But when I turn around to look at him, I wonder if I've been here before

Pre-Chorus

Maybe I'm only running from the places that I know

But maybe this is what love is supposed to feel like

Maybe every map gets folded up into a single home

The wind keeps carrying me back to the same old place

Chorus

Paper roads and 7-Eleven lights

Every road you drive ends in your hometown tonight

Cigarette smoke at dawn on the curb of Main

This is the only place I'll ever find what's real again

Bicycle and 7-Eleven, a rhythm I've never forgotten

You keep calling me back like I'm the last one left to hold it

Paper roads and 7-Eleven lights

I think maybe I was born right here in this neon tonight

Verse

A girl on the edge of town, holding a map with my name written on it

She says she's heard stories about the boy who came back home

The gas station owner tells her where to look for me now

Says 'be kind' like that's something you can teach just by looking at the floor somehow

I keep riding till I find the gravel shoulder of the road we used to take

She's sitting on the hood of my car with a cup of coffee in her hand and nothing left to say

Just the two of us, parked beside a cornfield that's been there since my grandfather built this place

She says 'look' and points at a sky full of stars

Says 'I think you're home