When Stefan's Mother Hands Him a Rejection Letter from the College

When Stefan's mother hands him a rejection letter from the college he had been dreaming of going to for four years, Stefan shrugs and says that he didn't really want to go to that college anyway. He says he had already decided to go to his second-choice school, which had accepted him a week earlier. Stefan is most likely employing a defense mechanism, because he views the rejection letter as a

A) face-threatening act.
B) face need.
C) face-saving act.
D) threat to his self-esteem.