Nothing

The song follows someone struggling to accept a breakup. Friends try to comfort him and say he may be better off without his former partner, but he is still deeply attached. As he drinks, his sadness turns into impulsive hope: he believes that calling or visiting her will make her change her mind. The repeated lack of response brings the emotional movement to a painful point—he wants reassurance, but receives silence.

“Better off” means in a better situation, while “a quitter” here suggests someone giving up, though the opening question sounds especially bleak. “Coming down” describes the unpleasant feeling as the effects of alcohol wear off; the shaking hands make that physical discomfort vivid. The phrase “turn it all around” means to reverse a bad situation, and “slurred” means that drunken speech is unclear.

The song can be read as showing how heartbreak and alcohol distort judgment: the speaker treats his own pain as proof that his former partner will take him back. His friends’ attempts to calm him suggest that they see a danger or consequence he cannot face in the moment. The repeated “nothing” may mean she says nothing at all, or that whatever response he gets feels like no answer to the words he hoped to hear. The opening reference to being “better off dead” is stark, but the lyrics do not explain whether it is a literal wish or an expression of despair.