When you think someone as cheap, often the other person is also thinking of you as cheap. Cheap re-inforces cheap. It is a vicious circle. When you prove your integrity, when someone questions you in public, you become a hero. People sweet-talk to you in front, behind quite something else can be happening which Detectives who can sense a conspiracy miles away will sense. Use your common sense. Often none of your friends compete for your position, though it would look like it.