From the album Your Friend - Single
This is a self-aware performance of lying to yourself. McRae knows 'friendship' is a consolation prize the second she starts repeating it like a mantra. The whole song is her trying to talk herself into accepting less while every detail she notices about him proves she wants more.
you look like an old movie / And you smell like wine and bread
You do not catalog aesthetic details this specific about someone you want to be friends with. The sensory precision gives her away before she finishes the first claim.
I can dance with other people / Pretend I'm not waiting for you
The word 'pretend' demolishes the entire argument. She just admitted the friendship claim is performance, that waiting is what she is actually doing.
Swear it's not a second prize / Are my motives so coarse if / If I made that compromise
Calling it a compromise admits it is a compromise. The question about coarse motives means she already knows the answer is yes. When you have to swear something is not a consolation, it is.
'Cause you don't feel the friction
Friction only exists between two people pulling toward each other. She just named the thing she has been trying not to say all song. The word choice is almost physical.
You don't want me back, do you?
'Back' means reciprocal. Friends do not want each other back. The entire performance collapses into one unguarded question she did not mean to ask out loud.
The song works because McRae does not try to hide the self-deception. She lets you watch her fail to convince herself in real time. By the end, the mask is off and the question she has been avoiding all song just falls out.