Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate) - If It's Bad News, It Can Wait lyrics

My three best friends and I planned a weeklong trip for our spring break during our senior year of high school We were untethered and free and grown We left before the sun rose and began the first leg to Virginia Beach for a couple of days before heading out to camp on the Outer Banks When we arrived, we spent the first night playing video games we brought from home in our hotel room In the morning, we ventured out into the world and wandered around until late at night like spectators or ghosts as artificial lights burned brighter than daylight The boardwalk was teeming with youth brashly claiming adulthood like it was the last day on earth We retreated back to our hotel, exhausted The phone in our room rang out at an ungodly hour (when only bad things are on the other end) I answered and gave it to Danny so he could hear his brother pa**ed away He dropped the phone and bolted out into the hall, blind with grief We ran out after him, unsure of what to do He threw off our embrace and escaped down the stairs to the beach and haunted the shore of the Atlantic for hours and hours I waited and watched from a nearby park bench When he came back, we got into the car and drove the twelve hours back home and made it just in time for the funeral