strangers

Maybe, within our feeble attempts of making a quick class buddy or stressing about the busyness of our own lives, we have forgotten to take the most instinctual steps of recognizing each other’s existence. 

Even though those few weeks were full of leaky ceilings, broken elevators and sleepovers with a dozen strangers, all I felt was romance.

It's in all the little mannerisms and phrases I've stolen from “you”, it's in the way I dress and the way I define love; all little pieces of you that are stitched into my identity, woven seamlessly into my life, seasoning all of my experiences like a familiar recipe.

Anonymity wears many masks: the faceless poster child of cautionary tales, a weapon that conceals more than it unveils. But a mask has edges and contours.

There are two rules. A: Each housemate must invite one guest. B: No other housemate can have ever met (or even heard of) this guest.

“Strangers” embodies Halsey’s shift from an omission of same-sex pronouns toward explicitly expressing her bisexual identity in her music.