Betrayed by the Girl I Loved in Secret

At the start of junior year, Harrison Harding wins the student council vice presidency by ten votes over his best friend Merlin Walker. But the moment he wins, his secret girlfriend Maureen Henson puts photos of the night he was molested at a bar on the big screen and calls him money-hungry and messy. He is disqualified on the spot. When he confronts her, she admits she lied and used him to help Merlin win, then tells him to run the loser's eight laps in a clown suit.

As he runs, Maureen tends to Merlin with cold soda and soft words, and freshmen mistake the two for a couple. No one denies it. She has sold the bracelet he worked a year and a half to buy her, spending the money on diamond cuff links for Merlin, and she drags Harrison to the celebration dinner anyway. Two months ago his birth mother found him and asked him to study abroad in England; he had refused for Maureen's sake.

Humiliated, sick and no longer on the student council, Harrison finally dials his mother and agrees to come. The one he loved in secret has chosen someone else.