[Verse 1]
It's nice that I got
A couple things from you
With prescription Adderall
It's nice what I got
And now I suppose
[Pre-Chorus]
That I needed the world from
Just one man
I needed a lot from you
[Chorus]
I got a lot of free rein and cocaine
And shifty goals
But I needed the world from you
The world
I needed a lot from you
[Verse 2]
It's nice what you said
But it didn't carry weight
It always stayed the same
With spinning bedroom walls
And you had better plans
[Pre-Chorus]
I needed the world from
Just one man
I needed a lot from just one, just one, just one man
[Bridge]
I didn't want indifference, I wanted a medal
It started with a choke and you called me the kettle
But he was twenty-eight and off of the handle
[Chorus]
I got a lot of free rein
And ashamed
And pretty clothes
And shifty goals
But I needed the world from you
The world
I needed a lot from you
A lot from just one man
I needed a lot from just one, just one, just one man
I needed a lot from you
A lot from you
This line precedes the “you had waiting cabs” line. She could be saying that she did the math to calculate the time between the breakup and his next relationship. If it was a very short amount of time, then he could have already been showing interest in the “waiting cabs” when he was supposed to be exclusive with the narrator.
When a parent buys a kid or teenager a new pair of shoes, they often pick a shoe size with some “wiggle room” to allow the kid or teen to grow into them. This saves the parent money because the kid outgrows the shoe slower and therefore will not need a new shoe as quickly. The narrator is saying that, in her relationship with the man, she had “a lot of wiggle room.” This is almost certainly a metaphor for the age gap (17 F and 28 M). Considering there was an 11 year age gap and this was an adult in a relationship with a minor, this metaphor is most likely a critique of the age gap. The wiggle room could invoke this parent/child or provider/dependent dynamic of a parent buying shoes for their child, or it could refer to the narrator’s naivety. She could have viewed the relationship as being something that will take a long time for her to outgrow. She could have thought that she would learn so much from the older man. This age gap provided “wiggle room” for her to mature with him.
Via Flood Magazine:
The bridge on this song feels like one of the heaviest, most important parts of the album, lyrically. I’m talking about being 17 and in a situation with a man who’s much older. There’s this line, “He was 28 and off the handle, I was a kid wanting to cancel.” That idea, “I said yes to this thing, and I have now found myself in a position where something is expected of me, and I’m young and I don’t know how to say ‘no.’” Seventeen is such an important, formative age. There’s so much stuff tattooed onto my brain from being a 17-year-old girl, and that part of me is a really loud part that comes out in songwriting.
Blondshell is saying that she “did the math” and the man had “waiting cabs.” This could mean that after the man broke up with her, he quickly found someone new. Waiting cabs would refer to other women or love interest’s being lined up for him to go to immediately following the breakup.
The man ended up getting away with having a relationship with a minor 11 years younger than him. A deposition is when a lawyer will ask someone various questions concerning an ongoing legal case. The narrator never got deposed, so no legal action occurred despite the nature of the relationship. In a non-legal sense, this could also mean that no one in her personal life investigated this relationship, or they allowed it to continue.
This is most likely a play on the idiom “the pot calling the kettle black,” which is used to call out hypocrisy. In this particular instance, the man is the pot and she is the kettle. The man regularly gets upset and aggressive. When the narrator becomes upset and aggressive, the man criticizes her, therefore being hypocritical. Now that she is reflecting on this story, she recognizes the hypocrisy and is saying that he was the pot calling the kettle (the narrator) black.
In relationships with large age gaps, the older person typically has a more stable financial situation. This often results in the older individual using money to keep the younger person happy, enraptured, and excited in the relationship. The narrator got “pretty clothes” and most likely other material gifts from the older man.