I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Six AM day after Christmas
I throw some clothes on in the dark
The smell of cold
Car seat is freezing
The world is sleeping
I am numb
Up the stairs to her apartment
She is balled up on the couch
Her mom and dad went down to Charlotte
They're not home to find us out
And we drive
Now that I have found someone
I'm feeling more alone
Than I ever have before
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
Off the coast and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
They call her name at seven-thirty
I pace around the parking lot
Then I walk down to buy her flowers
And sell some gifts that I got
Can't you see
It's not me you're dying for?
Now she's feeling more alone
Than she ever has before
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
Off the coast and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
As weeks went by
It showed that she was not fine
They told me "Son it's time to tell the truth"
And she broke down and I broke down
'Cause I was tired of lying
Driving back to her apartment
For the moment, we're alone
Yeah, she's alone and I'm alone
And now I know it
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
Off the coast and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
I throw some clothes on in the dark
The smell of cold
Car seat is freezing
The world is sleeping
I am numb
Up the stairs to her apartment
She is balled up on the couch
Her mom and dad went down to Charlotte
They're not home to find us out
And we drive
Now that I have found someone
I'm feeling more alone
Than I ever have before
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
Off the coast and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
They call her name at seven-thirty
I pace around the parking lot
Then I walk down to buy her flowers
And sell some gifts that I got
Can't you see
It's not me you're dying for?
Now she's feeling more alone
Than she ever has before
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
Off the coast and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
As weeks went by
It showed that she was not fine
They told me "Son it's time to tell the truth"
And she broke down and I broke down
'Cause I was tired of lying
Driving back to her apartment
For the moment, we're alone
Yeah, she's alone and I'm alone
And now I know it
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
Off the coast and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly
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I think it's talking about an abortion for a couple of different reasons....
*The main thing that makes me think it's talking about an abortion is that the father doesn't go in with her-he waits in the parking lot and gets her flowers. It seems that if they were going for an ultrasound or dilation and curettage that he would have been able to/chosen to go with her.
*Another clue is that from the first verse, they are trying to hide it from the parents and they are feeling alone and guilty about what happened. Of course, someone can be ashamed of their choice to have sex and still choose to go on with the pregnancy, but it seems to me that if they never wanted to get pregnant, they would be more prone to hide it and less devastated about losing it. Of course, in high school some close friends of mine dealt with an unplanned pregnancy that miscarried early on, and even though they had been horrified about all of the potential consequences of unintentional parenthood, the mother still experienced severe guilt and anxiety about losing the baby, so I am not saying that someone who loses a child they didn't "ask for" cannot be sad about it. I know most mothers are probably devastated by miscarriage, no matter what their circumstances are.
*Then when it says, "It's not me you're dying for" this, again, implies that the "death" (whether you believe abortion is killing the baby or not, the word used in the lyric is "dying" so that's why I say that) is planned, or anticipated. I think this is from the parents (or possibly just the father) to the unborn child, sympathizing that they didn't want to abort, but they felt it was the best choice. Now the mother feels more alone because she has just lost a part of her, like women often feel after miscarriage, or even after abortion or healthy childbirth. At the end of the first verse, the father felt more alone than ever, and I think this is because he didn't want to go through with the operation. But now she's feeling more alone, and this continues and she realizes what she's done. Hence, at the end they finally come clean about everything that happened.
***I definitely understand the argument that it's talking about a miscarriage, and it could be applied to those situations too, I'm sure. These are just the reasons I lean towards the belief that it's talking about abortion. Of course, no one actually knows except for Ben Folds Five and whoever else they've personally talked to about it (and, if this is a real story, then the mother of the child and others involved), but it is fun to analyze the lyrics like this I guess. :)