Songfacts®:

• "I wanted to try writing something that didn't have repeating lyrics," Jimmy Eat World lead singer Jim Adkins told Phoenix New Times. "It seemed like a challenge, and I chose 'Kill' to go for it. Got about as close as I could with it. Some elements I had to keep familiar as it went on, though."
• This references the Heatmiser's "Half Right" from the 1996 album Mic City Sons, a track Jimmy Eat World would later cover on their 2005 Stay on My Side Tonight EP:
  
  I pick up put down the phone
  Like your favorite Heatmiser song goes:
  'It's just like being alone.'
• The singer is stuck in a situation where he's unable to express his love, presumably to a girl he's known for a long time who comes back into his life ("Could it be that everything goes 'round by chance?"), but he's also unable to walk away. "I know what I should do, but I just can't walk away," he sings in the closing lines.