<human>: My ex-boyfriend and I dated for 2.5 years and broke up a few months ago.  Things were going fine and we were maintaining a decent friendship until he started dating one of my best friends.  I think deep down I always thought we would get back together so this hurt me immensely.  I tried for a couple of months to remain friends with him but decided a few weeks ago that I needed to move on and no contact was the only way to accomplish this.

The issue I have is that we have almost all the same friends.  I know I have to go out and make some new friends which I am already doing but I don't want to lose touch with all my current friends.  My ex-bf and now ex-friend go to almost every single event that people plan.  The two of them are doing fine emotionally so they really don't care if they see me at an event but it's still painful for me to see them.  Because my ex had asked if there was anything he could do to make this easier for me, I asked him if he would mind considering stepping back from certain events from time to time.  He interpreted this request as me asking to be able to tell him when and where he could go  and gave me a pretty firm no.

What do I do here?  Do I just show up at events and deal with seeing them together?  Do I try to explain my request better to my ex?  Do I give up going to group events?  It just sucks because they hurt me and yet it feels like I'm the one who continually gets punished.  While I don't want my friends to have to choose sides it hurts a bit that people seem to condone the way the two of them have treated me.

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<bot>: Ex-bf of 2.5 years started dating my friend.  We all share our group of friends and I'm not sure how to go no contact without losing touch with my friends.