liar liar pants on fire

How do you handle a friend who lies right to your face? You know they’re lying, they know you know they’re lying and yet the lie grows. It’s not a necessary lie. It’s a save you hurt feelings lie but the lie itself hurts worse than the original truth might’ve.
We all say we hate liars and we hate being lied to but there are those times when you know about the lie and yet you just let yourself be lied to. At first you’re amused, then disbelief sets in, then anger starts to brew. So you (or me) justify it “they are trying to spare my feelings” and after that you rationalize it “If I confront it it will hurt their feelings” but then a couple days go by and you start to wonder how much a friendship’s worth if you have to be lied to.
Liar liar pants on fire, a single lie sends a spark that can torch a friendship but there’s no way to put it out. At least none I can think of.

relationship wars

have you ever had a relationship war? not you and your partner for life slugging it out with verbal zings and kapows, a conversation with a friend that turns into a “my relationship’s better than your’s” fight?

You’re just chit chatting along and you mention something, like your weekend plans for example, and they one up you. You know you aren’t competing but suddenly they are. You say your partner did this for you, of course their’s did something better. You talk about a trip to the store to buy something and they come up with a shopping spree. You mention anything and it’s one upped.
Maybe it’s not that blatent but it is confusing no matter how big the battle gets. If you’re me, you wonder why it turns into a relationship war instead of a nice conversation. You aren’t threatened or bothered by their life, why do they need to upstage your’s? I’ve had this happen twice in the past 36 hrs. Two different conversations where I ended up shaking my head and wondering why my innocent comments about my own life made someone else feel the need to polish up their own life and shove it in my face. I’m happy in my dull little life, it suits me just fine. It’s not perfect and I never say it is, it’s my life and I’m fond of it. I’m lucky to have found someone who lets me be me and who enjoys the same boring things I do. I’d never compete with another’s life, they aren’t me so how can you compare?
It just baffles me to have a nice talk turn into a relationship war and I am guessing one of you reading this know exactly what I’m talking about.