Time to strike a balance between "vague enough to make a general point" and "specific enough to get an issue off my chest": Someone I'm friends with did something last night that, metaphorically, put my teeth on edge. Not a bad thing, but a frustrating thing. I've thought, first before I went to sleep then this morning, if I wanted to talk to my friend about this: You put me in an awkward situation and I had no polite way to end it, and that's not fair.
Again, this is someone I'm fond of, going back several years, and I likely could have brought up my issue in a way that wouldn't cause any of us to get defensive...but in the moment and for a while afterward I was still worried bringing up the issue would go badly, and we'd both just be frustrated with each other.
I decided to let it pass; I'd only need to bring it up if my friend does this again: OK, this thing you're doing? It's becoming a habit, and it shouldn't. And my friend is smart enough to see if it starts to become a habit.
There. Navigating the shoals of being social. Sometimes there are shoals. Um, again, metaphorically speaking.