Hi Anita,

Thank you very much for your prompt reply and providing your opinion! I am so glad to cross paths with you again on this thread. Thank you for reading.

I appreciate your advice not to socialize with friend 4. I suppose I should ask, how do you think this can be achieved? Should I speak to the friendly directly and state my own intentions? Should I speak to other friends and try to collaboratively exclude friend 4? Should I create a new groupchat without the friend?

I do wonder how to physically go about this!

We are slated to get together in a very large group on Halloween, so I think that may be the last chance I give her.

Thanks again for providing your thoughts!