Welcome ph3314. First off you'll always have people on this forum who understand where you are coming from. I'm only on Day 10 of sobriety but hanging out here is giving me so much hope and strength.
Like you I too have friends who I spent my time drinking with, and those relationships are undergoing transformations. I'm sure many of them won't survive my quitting. In fact, sad to say, most of my best friends are drinkers too, although I don't know if they could be classified as alcoholics. I told one friend that I am an alcoholic and he just laughed and acted as though I was being melodramatic, or attention seeking. So I backtracked a bit and said I'm off the booze as I want to get fit for a 10k run I'm doing in July and that I'm trying to lose weight (all of which is also true). It's hard to know what to say isn't it? I'm just taking it as it comes at the moment. I have a tendency to be a people-pleaser so I am reminding myself that stopping alcohol is me looking after myself, and everyone else can deal with it. But I won't lie, it's hard...
Keep us posted on how you're doing!