Lies Written by the Stars

Facial Expressions

Chapter 4: Facial Expressions

ELLE’S POV

"Today we are going to talk about how lies can easily be told and how deceit happens." Our professor started and I became interested even more.

Human behavior? Classic.

"Aside from the words we say to make our lies come to life, one of the things that make it real is actually our facial expressions." He continued.

"Let's ask two people to demonstrate it for us, shall we?" I gulped.

I don't want to be called in the first day- "Ms. Elentiya."

Well great. That’s just my luck.

"And Mr. Chris?" I looked at him.

He is a nice guy. Aside from Liz, I consider him one of the people we can hang out with aside from Raph; together with Liz, this kinds of make our little group.

I met Chris when we were in grade school, we played tag and all but we were never that close. He was from another class back then. Raph however, became friends with us when he transferred here from another school when we are in our grade 8.

My thoughts came back to the present as Mr. Yada tells Chris what to do.

"Okay then, please tell us a lie and you have to mean it. Convince us. And after this class, you will be given the liberty to choose whether to tell us a lie or a truth and we will guess if it is indeed a lie or a truth. We're like your lie detectors. So Mr. Chris? Can you please start a lie for us?" Mr. Yada said.

Chris stood up and placed his hands on his pockets. Not bothered at all. He looked at Mr. Yada and smirked a little.

"I'm ugly." He said.

With that the whole class erupted into laughs. I shake my head. How arrogant, because if you look at him, you will realize that it is indeed, a lie.

"Okay. Good enough Mr. Chris and now, Ms. Elentiya?" Ugh. I wish he would stop calling me that.

I stood up.

"Please lie to our faces." He said.

With that, I looked at everybody and each of my back-stabbing friends, I inhaled and said. "I'm stupid."

And a series of oooohs came from our other classmates; I can't help but smirk because that is so satisfying to say out loud. Because I know myself, that it is so not true. I am smart enough to know when people are faking themselves to me. Plus, I never really have bad grades. I smiled.

"Now, that's good but we all know what they both said was a lie. You may now take your seats."

I sat and Liz tapped my arm. She's proud. She knows there was more to what I just said.

"Lies can actually be seen through the eyes, as what you all have probably heard- they're the windows to our souls. Your eyes can't lie actually. And it can look different depending on how much a person has gone through. Dilated on drugs, empty, dark, painful and sparkling when we're happy or in pain, and even the changes in size. Our eyes have their own traits." Mr. Yada stated.

"But do you know what makes a lie more true even the eyes can't be seen with a slight linger of a lie? It's when the person itself believes their own lies." He looked at us; silence. Mr. Yada smiled.

"And of course, another tool is our smiles. And we have 5 different kinds of smiles: fake smile, uncomfortable smile, a genuine smile, seductive smile and a sarcastic smile. And if you can control your smile based on the lies you're telling, then you're probably a good liar; Right Mr. Jake?” We all looked at Jake.

I don’t know why Mr. Yada called him out all of a sudden but he is just like that, maybe calling Jake’s attention or maybe he meant something. We will never know so I just shrug it off most of the time.

Though, Jake is really a liar. Pfft.

“But a better one?” Mr. Yada continued. “Lies with their eyes and their smile. But you have to be careful though, because when your lies becomes the reality, that's going to be a hard place to get away from. So I highly suggest, as your professor and as someone with more experience with lies than you… to start telling the truth at all cost, no matter how painful it is." He looked at Chris.

I followed Mr. Yada’s eyes but when I looked at him, I saw Chris looking at me, I shivered and looked away.

What was that?

"Because as cliche as this sounds, the truth will always set you free." He smiled. "So keep it simple and start living on reality. The reality that life really sucks and you don't have control over it."

The class is in complete silence. The only things you can hear are breathing and the scribble of pens. I guess this lesson has hit us with realizations and reflections. That's just Mr. Yada for you. He tells you the truth, even if sometimes, you don't want to hear it. It is raw and it is honest. Like he's talking from his own experience or he just knows that some things are going on between our lives. He always knows what to say.

I looked over our classroom, some are hanging their head low, some are contemplating but Chris caught my attention. He's looking at me, or should I say, staring; observing. And when our eyes locked he c****d his head on his side. I wonder what he's thinking right now. I was about to ask him "What?" when our little staring contest was cut by Mr. Yada.

"Now that we have the basic principles of lying, Mr. Chris and Ms. Elentiya please come over here in front and stand facing each other." He asked.

What? I thought we are just going to tell another truth or lie? Why do we have to go in front? This is absurd.

I might have been lost in my thoughts because Liz kicked me on the shin, because now the whole class is looking at me and Chris is now standing in front, waiting.

How is he so okay with this? What a confident prick. So I stood up, hiding my nervousness and stood in front of Chris. Not looking at him.

"I want you both to look at each other and tell a truth or a lie. I am not going to ask you after if you are lying or not. Later on this semester, this would be your final project to me. Tell me what lies you had discovered from your partner."

Jesus Christ, I thought this day is about to be good for once. Partner? What partner?

"So Mr. Chris and Ms. Elentiya, seeing as you have tried this, I think you might be good partners, and I am not accepting no for an answer." He said directly when I looked at him and was about to object.

Damn it.

"Everyone, please pass to me who will be your partners for this semester and later I will send to you set of questions for your guidance." He stated, clearly ignoring my disapproval.

The class started finding their partners and wrote it down on a piece of paper.

I looked at Chris and he was smiling amusingly at me. This fool, I glared at him.

I looked at Liz pleadingly, and she just gave me an apologetic smile.

Is Mr. Yada sure we only have 5 types of smiles? Because I am pretty sure I am seeing a lot more than 5 smiles today.

I rolled my eyes.

"So Mr. Chris? Ms. Elentiya? And just to be fair, since Mr. Chris was the one who did it first earlier, so Ms. Elentiya? I guess we’ll do the ladies first card."

I rolled my eyes again, not being able to control it.

"Fine." I said.

I sighed and I looked at Chris, feeling my anger rise. Whatever, I will just get over this. Calm down Elle.

I mustered up all my confidence, looked him straight in the eye and let the words out.

"I don't care what other people think or tell about me."

There, asshole. Guess the lie in that. And then I gave him my most genuine smile. But it didn't last long until my smile started faltering. He didn't seem bothered or rocked at all. He smirked.

And then he said while looking at me straight through my eyes, "I know when people are lying." and then he smiled.

I feel like a wind just slapped me in the face. My smile is wiped away completely at the smile that I am seeing right now.

That smile. I know that smile…

It is the smile I am way too familiar with, because I have been seeing it in my nightmares. He just smiled like him and I almost fell between my knees. But before I get sucked into a dark memory, the bell rang and Mr. Yada spoke.

"Great work you two. Looks like we don’t have time to decipher whether what you just told us is a lie or the truth.” He sighed disappointingly.

“But you seem to get along well so I am looking forward to your output this semester.” He told us.

He looked at the whole class and said, “Class dismissed."

And I immediately went over my seat and grabbed my things and started to walk out. There is nothing else in my mind; I just have to get away.

I can’t breathe.

But I made a huge mistake of looking back at him before going out because as I look back to him, to Chris. He was still there, hands between his pockets and smiling at me and before I even had the chance to look away from him, he mouthed,

"Liar.”