I ran into a situation where I was talking to a girl I met in a group with two guys and two girls. One of them was a couple.
Later one of the guys spoke in a demanding tone to change locations. Unfortunately the girls were getting bored and agreed.
The way he phrased it was "Let's go to XYZ place" in a ordering tone.
I thought of suggesting a different place but most places were closed at the time.
Now how do I go along with the group without seeming like I am following him.
You just go along with it. You don't point it out, you don't add any thoughts to it or anything like that. You just say that's a good idea, thanks for looking out for us
If you're strictly asking from a Machiavellian standpoint, you lose 'leader' points because of it. But the overall effect of it is negligible (imagine in a video game losing 10 hp when you have like 10K total)
But even still, if you want to minimize it as much as possible then you come from the frame that he was looking out for you and had your (you and the groups) best interest in mind. Also showing appreciation will help bond you two together a little bit. Lastly, when you say thank you to him you can put your arm around him in a friendly way (IF, AND I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH IF you are at least somewhat friends already). Just know though, that you're going to risk coming off like a dick
I ran into such a situation at work too when my boss called in a ordering tone for "an important talk" when he saw me talking with a girl. The guy pulls such moves whenever he sees me talking with a girl.
How would you handle this?
"Sounds good man" -to your boss
Then you continue with the girl for a solid 20-30 seconds and tell her you have to go but you'll talk more soon. In addition, IF (and again you need some hella calibration for this kinda shit) you suspect that she's annoyed with him too you can throw in an ever so slight dig at the boss (out of earshot of him to her) that you just wish he 'got it' more, y'know? And then walk off
Though doing this you run the risk of pissing him off even more, which if he wants to can really throw you under the bus. So you have to be willing to accept that risk and know a bit about your boss' personality.
For example, I had a boss that would purposefully (and I know it was on purpose cuz I'd see him see me out of the corner of his eyes, sneaky little fuck) get in my way in a restaurant after I flirted with one of the girls from his other restaurant (damn she had nice tits). He would give me this condescending tone of "Oh, I didn't see you there" as if he was above me.
Well after one or two of these I just said, in an equally condescending tone "that's alright, I know you have trouble sometimes. I forgive you" while giving him a nice little pat on the arm (but I made sure to slightly push into his gut with every pat, so picture more forearm area). He was fat btw and the look on his face let me know that he was questioning if I meant it that way. And yes, I did.
Anywhoo, all that aside I'll point out that you're going to run risks doing shit like this at work. I didn't care because it was a restaurant job. Those are a dime a dozen. If I piss off my boss I can just go get another one the next day. You may not have that luxury though, so keep that in mind.
In addition, I think a part of the reason you're getting a little pushback from the forum here is because if you're seeing friend groups as out to get you, it's possible you're being a little over paranoid about it. Not saying that's what's happening, just saying it's a possibility. Because if someone in the group isn't purposefully picking you out about something, it's HIGHLY unlikely that they're acting against you when they do something with the group
Another possibility with your friend group is that the guy is the leader and also the type to be mr. macho lead the chicks kinda guy and might come off as kinda boorish. Also a possibility, I dunno, I wasn't there. Just food for thought just in case.
Because if you go full on Machiavelli you're probably not going to make yourself happy like that. Just my personal opinion/advice to you