Pretend - Braxton Cook

I’ve been from town to town

So many I’ve lost count

Made so many friends about

But so few are still around

I’m just a loner

Don’t need that many friends

I’m not like your others

Ain’t got much in compare

I don’t know where I fit in

But I just make do

Cause it’s easier to pretend

When you’re feeling down and out

And you don’t really feel it

Pretend

When you don’t like the people who surround you

You gotta pretend

You’re not feeling like yourself

Then you gotta pretend

You gotta pretend

Up and down the east coast, never found home

Starting over every year and it starts to get old

Skipped my homecoming, skipped my prom and all the dances

Never paid attention to them girls that made advances

Focused on this music thank God it finally got me

All I ever needed was my horn and my family

I’m just a loner

Don’t need that many friends

I’m not like your others

Ain’t got much in compare

I don’t know where I fit in

But I just make do

Cause it’s easier to pretend

You gotta pretend pretend pretend

You gotta pretend pretend pretend

Yeah

Yeah

Shapeshifter

Cold-switching

Just to carry conversation on cold shoulders

Causes my cordial climate to attempt at room temp small talk over two brews

But

I’m tipsy from disinterest

Listening just enough to uh-huh and head nod

Knowing I’m too pissed to drive this stick shift dialogue any longer

Truthfully

Truthfully I’m a loner

Seriously

Stricken with only child syndrome

Smiling for pictures with people who don’t purchase product

But

I’d be the butthole if I fast-forward past pseudo-fans who plan to tag me on

Instagram like

Like we sharing a story

So I pause for the cause far too often

Flaunting several silhouettes of self for fresh perspective

Elected

A semi-social anti-approachable people person posing on the runway of

relationships

Sunken

In my postal dysfunction

Finding emo Nemos in a sea of sorrows seeking to borrow empathy

But I’m empty more often than not

Pretending

Pretending like I know your voice

Like I know your voice whenever you call

Whenever

Whenever you call