My (20F) friend (20F) keeps trying to pressure me into doing things I don't want to do. How do I let them go?

Hi, as the title says, my friend keeps putting pressure on me to do things that I don't feel comfortable doing and it's all seemingly small things but it's just adding up and I have to find a solution to it.

I've been friends with a girl, let's call her Maria for around 5 years now. We studied together until sixth form (I stayed in my secondary's sixth form and she didn't). I met other people, specifically one girl (let's call her Sarah) who was into the whole self-improvement thing. I was never really friends with her on the same level as I was with Maria, however I did speak to Sarah quite a bit as we shared some classes together and through this I gathered that she wasn't a fan of social media. She said she had deleted her social media accounts when she completed secondary school (we started sixth form in 2021). By this point I had been struggling with phone addiction so meeting Sarah and learning about how she was living life without social media inspired me to do the same and 4 months into sixth form I deleted all forms of social meda. With Sarah by my side I felt much happier, free and not tied to my phone. However Maria reached out to me and asked me what had happened to my social media accounts. When I told her that I had decided to stop using social media as it was negatively affecting my mental health and that I was trying to undo my phone addiction she briefly agreed with me and then sort of dismissed it asking when I would be back. I was honestly in shock because I would have expected that my best friend would support me and understand that what I did was the best thing I could have done for my mental health at the time. But I shouldn't have been surprised as up to that point we shared a lot of videos with each other on social media so me suddenly going cold turkey was odd. I continued to stay off social media for the next couple of months until the end of my first year in sixth form and I can honestly say it was one of the best times in my life as I just felt like I was really myself. During summer break I made another account and started slowly going back to my old habits and Maria didn't question it and in fact, was quite happy to see that I was back after questioning me when I would return. Since I returned I have not deleted an account on social media and Maria would always insist that I open her messages on Tiktok which was always a long list of videos and even when we would text over Tiktok or messages she would sometimes dismiss what i was saying and just send something completely unrelated like a tiktok video.

Fast forward to my second year of sixth form, the same situation is ongoing and my exams were coming up so I laid low on the socials and tried to focus on my exams. I don't remember whether we went out or not but every so often we would go to get a coffee together however I was a broke student so sometimes I'd say I can't go and get a coffee together however she would offer to pay and because I saw her as my best friend I allowed her to just so that we could continue meeting up.

Not long after my exams finished I ended up travelling abroad from July 2023. I was visiting my family in Spain and then I travelled to Algeria to study my heritage language with my family and a private tutor. Whilst I was abroad Maria would occasionally ask me when I was going to return, which I understood because I mean, thats my best friend I would miss them right? However, I had a couple of other friends in the UK who barely asked when I was returning and understood that I was in Algeria for study and that I would return when I felt like I was at a good level with my language. Maria was always asking me when I would be back and I always said I didn't have a definitive answer as it depended on my academic progress with my tutor however she didn't respect this and would continue to ask.

Once I did return from Algeria, I told everyone as I wanted it to be a surprise. When I told Maria, she got super excited (understandable) and asked if I would be able to meet up the same week. I had just driven across Europe just to get home, so understandably I was incredibly tired and just wanted to spend some time relaxing and also just getting used to life in the UK again as I had travelled abroad alone without my parents or family.

After a week and a half I agreed to meet her and we met up and had some coffee together (paid for by her because I genuinely had no money) it was at this point that I was starting to realise that we had grown apart as friends but I wasn't too sure just yet. We've met up around twice this month, the last time we met up was this morning, and this is where I really felt that we were now 2 people with different directions in life. We met up in a large public park and sat together and discussed how life had been lately etc. then we took a short walk around the town and looked at some shops. Maria asked if I wanted to get a coffee together and I said I've actually stopped drinking coffee as I realised I wasn't really a fan of the effects it has on me (negative) but I asked whether she would like one and that we could still go and have a coffee and that I didn't mind. She refused so we continued walking and asked if we could go to a bookshop in the town centre. I said no as my parents had only allowed me out on the premise that I didn't go to the town centre (riots were planned). She kept insisting and I said 'Look, I don't want to disrespect my parents' and that we could go another time when the situation was safer to which she closed the discussion. When it was time to say goodbye, she told me that we should grab a coffee the following day. I explained that it was impossible for my parents to allow me to go out multiple days in a row (they were not born in the UK and as such are more protective especially with what's going on in the news). She then said it's okay and that I could lie to my parents and that we would go paintballing tomorrow in an area of our town that's quite far from where I would tell my parents I would be.

I've just gotten home now and I truly don't consider Maria to be my best friend anymore. I spoke to my close cousin about the situation and she mentioned that Maria was disrespecting my parents rules by telling me to lie to them and also by pressuring me into doing things I didn't feel comfortable doing, like going out multiple times when I didn't have any money whatsoever to pay her back with and in general just trying to pressure me into using social media when I always try to leave it for a while. Nobody else in my friend circle does this and they all respect my decision to take a break from social media however sudden it may be. There are other things she has pressured me to do which I don't want to mention as I don't want to go into specifics on them but they are seemingly trivial things however the bottom line is whenever I say no Maria will always say 'just do it this one time you'll be fine'.

The worst part is I've explained the situation to my mother a couple of weeks ago but I left out her name and when I told my mum I was meeting with Maria today she just made a comment on how friends are sometimes an issue and that just because they look perfect on the outside it doesn't mean that they're a good friend.

My problem is now, I am not sure how to proceed. I'd like Maria to stop considering me as a best friend or even as a friend now, seeing as I can't list a single common interest between the two of us. However I am afraid that she may try to reel me back in and that I will accept it and fall victim once again. How do I go about letting her know that I am no longer interested in being friends? We do not attend the same university or have any common events, if that helps.