How can I avoid my annoying best friend?

This question really should be in a friendships section but there isn’t one so here we are. I didn’t come to this site to be made fun of or stuff like that. I came here for advice on my trainwreck of a life. If you can help me it is very much appreciated…

Ok so I am at high school and I’m 14. I have been in the same class as my annoying best friend since the beggining. My other vest friend moved up classes to a smarter one at the end of our first year at high school. Ever since then my best friend (we’ll call him James) hasstarted to be a pain in the ass. Yesterday just after Easter break, he full on slapped me across the face and I had a ringing in my ear for ages. I much prefer my other best friend (we’ll call him Alex) who moved out of our set just after our first year, because he is so much nicer to me and we have been in a band for a while.

Anyways the thing I’m annoyed about is that my ex girlfriend (were still really close) had apparently been talking to him and he sed he was upset because I was ditching him at school. So she told me this on a social site in a mail and said that he was a friend that didn’t come around often.

Also I have recently been seeing one of mates that hangs out in a different area of the school and have been spending some more time with him which I think is what he means by me ditching him.

So my question is how can I deal with this/avoid my annoying ‘best friend’