We used to smoke on the fire escape
Now we just smoke in the living room
In the plastic patio chairs, that the last tenant left
I came to Reseda for the cheap rent and the distant listless gloom
I answered a Craigslist ad for a roommate
Rosa was it
She waits tables on the weekdays
Picks up any shift she can
I paint houses that I can't afford to live in
Scraping by, with what we've got, to pay the rent
We used to smoke on the fire escape
Now we just smoke in the living room
And I play her the songs that I wrote last year when things got dim
And her boyfriend's a real great guy
He works down at the jiffy lube
They teach me Spanish at night
We eat what she takes from her shift
They both think I can be something if I try
They come out to all the open mics
He's looking around to help me find a van that I could buy
She waits tables on the weekdays
Picks up any shift she can
I paint houses that I can't afford to live in
Scraping by, with what we've, got to pay the rent
And mom wants to know how sunny California is
Says the Island's been cold
It sounds like she's over it
Tells me Catherine's moving home
Her husband's been pretty sick
There's a doctor they hope
Has better luck diagnosing him
We used to smoke on the fire escape
Now we just smoke in the living room
And the lease is up and we'll never see that deposit again
Rosa's moving in with her boyfriend
I'm going to drive off somewhere new
When I so desperately needed a friend
Rosa was a friend