Pancake with Syrup

How do you know when you need to cut a(n ex-)friend out of your life? How much is too much? And what do you say to him or her when you decide that time has come?

I met a girl online several months ago, and we hit it off very well, to the point where we had exchanged several Skype calls and were planning to meet up. A few days ago, she told me about how her mother had at points in the past been a drug addict, the cause of her and her daughter's homelessness, abusive, and even suicidal/homicidal towards my friend. I reacted with disgust, the thought of it making me sick. I was honest with her that I had a negative opinion of her mother now, and her response was to completely cease communication for a few days, then come back making excuses for her mom, being an abuse apologist, and getting angry with me for 'judging when I haven't even met her' and basically blaming me for having any ill feelings as a result of what she told me.

I am bewildered and hurt by this response, and it makes me sick and angry whenever I think of both the things her mom did and the way my friend treated me - as if I was the bad guy and she needed to somehow defend her mother's image from me. I just don't know if I can handle being friends with an abuse apologist... but before all this, I SWORE I would never turn around and walk out. I promised to never abandon her.

What is your opinion on what I should do?

Mine: I have a little rubber bracelet that I never take off. My little sister, the most precious person to me in the world, gave it to me.

That means that I wouldn't have ever existed to go back in time and harm her...right?

He mistook my friendliness for flirting, and when he asked me out, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt in an effort to not be shallow. But honestly, I am not physically attracted, he's almost a decade older than me, he has no sense of personal boundaries, he frequently laughs at me condescendingly, his idea of a date is paintball, and his only interests seem to be anime, cars, and...paintball. He talks about himself a lot but will not listen to me talk about my interests.

Also, he has made lewd suggestions implying that he really just wants in my pants. And quite honestly, he'd squish me. I don't want to be mean, but 'I wish I'd never given him my number. I've tried ignoring him, but he continues to try to text and call me, and we're in two of the same courses and often run into each other on campus, and I just don't feel right outright ignoring him in person when he talks to me.

How can I get him to leave me alone???

The character is named Maurici. His nicknames are Ric (pronounced "Reese") and Rici (pronounced "Reesee"). How should I spell these nicknames in my manuscript?

Ric looks too much like Rick, and Rice looks like it's pronounced...well..."rice". So I thought of just typing out Reese. I think people would pronounce Rici correctly, but I kind of want the spelling of both nicknames to be uniform.

So should I use Reese and Reesee? Or do you have any other suggestions?