#volturiwolf

august is from the perspective of augustine, or the 'other girl' in this triangle, the 'affair'.. only, she's this sweet girl who truly falls for this boy who spends his summer with her, taking her virginity and whispering sweet nothings despite having another girl. in the second verse, it's when the infatuation or love starts to become evident as, like any girl in love, she wants to claim him in some way, to reassure herself that he is hers.. in the second verse, it's also clear that it's a teenage love bc augustine wonders whether james will still stay in contact with her once school is back only to then say 'i remember thinking i had you' whilst also saying over and over 'you were never mine' and how their 'love' was 'never mine'.. she's completely infatuated with this 'summer love' that she cancels all plans to be with him in the case that he called.. the song also has this lyric that has somewhat a double meaning.. she says 'meet me behind the mall'.. being an affair, their meet ups are always behind a closed door or behind buildings.. this lyric can also be viewed as 'meet me behind them all' as similarly, the affair happens outside of the view of others..

betty is from the perspective of james and set after summer and the affair are over. ths song is set to act like an apology letter.. in the song, we find that betty found out abt the affair, hence the apology, from 'inez' who spread the rumour, and amongst all the other runours she had spread, this was the one time it had been true. in the second verse, we find that james had been with betty at a social event when he had stood to the side bc he wasn't fond of crowds when betty went off to dance with this guy.. seeing this, james left and was walking along the cobblestone path when augustine pulled up.. he then goes on to say that the days he spent with her turned to nights yet whilst it all happened, he was thinking of betty.. throughout the whole song, james blames his actions of cheating on the fact that he was young, 17 and didn't know anything.. in contrast to augustine who referred to their affair as a 'summer love', he referred to the affair as a 'summer thing'.. the reoccurring theme of james showing up to betty' party occurs as he shows up on her doorstep to profess his love, despite not being the biggest fan of crowds, yet we find that he's still not as empathetic or remorseful as he says 'will you kiss me on the porch in front of all your stupid friends'.. he's just a piece of shit

cardigan is from the perspective of betty and is set 20-30years later, often being sung from past tense as it represents betty looking back on the relationship.. the song compares betty to an old cardigan that's tossed aside and left discarded for dust to consume before being pulled out and tossed on as if it were their favourite, showing how no matter how long james left for, how many girls he went after (or how many different cardigans he wore), he'd always come back and claim that she was his favourite. unlike james, who placed the blame on his young age, betty says "when you are young, they assume you know nothing, but i knew you" and what he was doing and how despite her age, she had grown and matured and knew what was happening.. in the second verse, she says that he gave her his weekends which showed how unimportant she had been to him around this time as we knew that he was spending the summer with augustine. the whole trilogy just had references left, right and centre.

unlike august, betty and cardigan, which had been confirmed to be connected, illicit affairs is kinda just something that everyone sees as an 'on the side'.. the title itself kinda pointed that out.. 'make sure nobody sees you leave, hood over your head, keep your eyes down', augustine and james would always meet up 'behind the mall' to ensure that no one would see. 'so you leave no trace behind, like you don't even exist', as soon as the summer was over, james had dropped augustine as if she was nothing and no longer existed in his life as he went to fix things with betty. 'look at this idiotic fool that you made me. you taught me a secret language i can't speak with anyone else', her love for him blinded her yet brought this nice feeling for the amount of time that she had that she felt lole an idiotic mess and felt lost, like she'd never get that feeling from anyone else..