Will try to be brief. I have a friend, A, who I have known for about 8 years. Similar life circumstances, similar outlook on life, spent a lot of time together and had a really nice friendship. We met through a social group and A met B at about the same time as we met. I made an effort, but B was very hostile towards me, told others in the group that A was her friend not mine, and basically if we all tried to do something together, did her best to freeze me out. It was so childish, I just told A that it was best to keep social events separate which worked great for years. During the pandemic I had a major loss and although I tried my best, was not much fun to be around. Did not see B much except as part of the whole group and she was awful, if anyone asked how I was she would jump in with an anecdote about when she lost her husband a decade before, anything to get the attention back onto herself. A few months ago there was a blow up at a social event between B and someone else, and in the aftermath I learned they had words because of how B was talking about me during the period my family member was dying. Apparently the whole group had been involved, it caused a lot of bad feeling but no one told me and I knew nothing about it. Since then, A has been really distant with me and I am really hurt. She contacts me if we are going to be at the same event, but always says no if I suggest doing something just us. Tonight I got a text from her about something next week which said 'see you soon'. I texted back that we probably wouldnt as she seemed to be avoiding seeing me one to one, that I didnt want to make it more awkward so wouldnt ask to do any thing with just us again, and was sad things had changed so much. I wished her well, and am aware that this all sounds very high school, but it hurts to lose a friendship and I am so confused as to why this has happened.