Am I a bad person for not choosing between my two friends?

[Piplup]

I have two very close friends that I have known for many years, I‘ll just call them A and B. We used to talk and play games almost every day and never really had any arguments so it was a bit unusual when A suddenly stopped talking to B and I that much. A had met a new friend that she now talked to quite a lot, while barely interacting with us two. At the time I just assumed that A wanted her space to talk to other people, since we three usually do everything together, however it got to a point where it felt like A was avoiding B and I. When we tried to talk to A, A‘s new friend, on behalf of A, told B that she did not want to be friends anymore and that B was gaslighting A. This was very out of the blue for the two of us but after trying to ask A directly, it seemed like it was mostly because of some comments B had made while trying to encourage A to finish her education, because A had dropped out of highschool because of mental health problems. Following this, A cut ties to pretty much everyone we knew, including me, while never directly talking to me about anything that happened, I only got to know what happened through B. B was very much sad, confused and angry and had every right to be in my opinion, because A‘s accusation seemed farfetched , but we couldn‘t know what exactly went on in A‘s head. I decided to try and keep in touch with A because I still saw her as my friend and was worried and confused as well. I kept checking up on her for a while and at some point we started talking more. At this point I was still very close friends with B and talked to A for a bit every few months to catch up. B knew that I was still in contact with A and told me that she didn‘t mind me still talking to her, A told me pretty much the same thing but I always avoid the topic when talking to any of them, because whenever I even said the other person name on accident it felt like their mood instantly changed. A while ago B found out that I still played videogames with A which led to me having to convince B that I would not start hating her due to A‘s influence on me. The whole thing has gotten to a point at which I lie about what I‘ve been doing on days that I met with A or B. Just recently B saw me playing a game with A again, since then she has barely reacted to my texts and to me that‘s obviously because I‘m still in contact with A. Now, on one side, I feel like a terrible person for still talking to A, who obviously really hurt B‘s feelings, even mine as well, but on the other hand I still think that it is my right to choose whoever I am friends with and I do still want to be friends with A, even if it is by far not as close as it used to be. Do I just try to cut ties with A, since my friendship with A bothers B so much? I also don‘t feel like I can just ignore the way B avoids me right now, this whole thing has been keeping me up at night for the past days.

[MsJayne]

You're being made the meat in the sandwich, very unfair behaviour from both of them, but mostly from B as I suspect she's the actual fly in the ointment even though she's managed to make it look like A's the problem. Obviously something B said to A upset A a lot, and so I'm wondering why you're so concerned about B's feelings being hurt. If she did actually say something offensive, for example, if she was being condescending or insulting in the way she delivered her "encouragement" to A, then she should stop pretending to be all butt-hurt over it, because if A has been experiencing mental health issues and it's stopped her from returning to school only she knows what's going on with her, and it's just rude and presumptuous of B to start offering unasked for advice or opinions. If you can't be friends with both of them, decide whose friendship you value more and focus on maintaining that one, and the other will either repair or fade as friendships do throughout life  . 

[Acacia98]

It sounds like you have an overactive guilty conscience and try too hard to make peace in circumstances where you did not cause the trouble.

In future, if a friend starts distancing themselves from you and you are not at fault, allow them to distance themselves. If you are at fault, apologize then respect their choice to distance themselves. In both circumstances, let them be the ones to reach out if they decide they want to be close again.

That's what you should have done with A. And that's what you should do with B. 

[d0nnivain]

You get to be friends with both of them if that is what you want but each of them can decide not to be friends with you for any reason, even a bad one. 

IMO when somebody is demanding you chose, pick the person who is not making those demands.  

[Wiseman2]

Neither of them seem like good friends if they are willing to make you a pawn and put you in the crossfire of their petty war. Distance yourself from both of them