See the lie

Good relationships are based on trust, which develops over time when you tell each other the truth. But there is always that instance where a lie seems to be the best recourse. Just a tiny one, just this once... It's not as easy as it sounds...That's because whenever we experience a basic emotion, the muscles in our face automatically express that emotion. The better your poker face is, the faster you can regain composure and the less noticable your show of emotion is, but even if you need electric sensors to pick up on it, in that fraction of a moment, the truth comes out: literally written all over your face. Your face can't lie.


"Are you okay?"

No hesitation. If you hesitate, they suspect. Lie to yourself so that you can convincingly lie to others.

"Of course I am."

I flash an action unit 12, willfully pulling my zygomatic major into submission. You seem mollified even though my orbicularis oculi, and pars orbitalis are frozen in a tell tale way that should alert even the least observant to my insincerity. Your emotional intuition is shot at the moment. In the height of your reveling, you have become clinically autistic. I am an object to you now. Something to talk at rather than to.

"Oh good!" you say, and pursue the topic; transforming into an unknowing sadist.

I don't want to hear it. Stop, please stop.

Frontalis and pars medialis contract in tandem of their own accord, my triangularis falters and follows suite. But it's only for a fraction of a second and you are in a state of rapture; too self absorbed at the moment to see the pain that flashes across my face.

It's better this way. Lie by omission. For sanity's sake, it is best not to affirm the existance of a problem that has no solution. All that you can do is try and forget about it... Try very hard...
Good friendships are based on a foundation of truth and trust, and though I have truth bound and gagged in the closet, I hope you can find it within you to trust me when I say that this is something that your'e better off not knowing about.

Am I okay?







...Of course I am...