made some friends recently, M and R and got pretty close to most of them and was introduced to a friend of them and really enjoyed their company. let's call them S. i'd start to hang out with S alot and realized that M and R were busy with other friends

i brought it up to S and said that they probably wanna leave the group and be with their cool new friends as a joke. i honestly didn't think too much about the comment. i just wanted to make conversation and maybe their perspective. S laughed and told me not too worry. then i noticed the rest of the friend group being really awkward and quiet a few weeks later. turns out S told M and R what I said. apparently they said i was shit talking and M and R took offense and i went to talk to them about it. i went to S first to figure out why they said what they said and they called the rest. M, R, S, were all there and said a couple things. M said they wished i was man enough to tell him to their face. R said they wished that i just talked to them about the problem. S said that i was being mean and hurtful with my words. then i said that there wasn't an issue and that if there was i would be the one to bring it up. i was always the one in the group to take initiative and try to fix things. i was trying to figure how they got offended but regardless i apologized. ive left the group just to avoid the awkwardness. ive been thinking about this for a while but nothing about this feel right. so aita for making a joke like that?