Hidden Behind the Lines

The next morning I woke up to Mrs. Sanders standing over me holding a single red rose and I sat up rubbing the sleep from my eyes. “Good morning, Mrs. Sanders,” I yawned.

“Oh, Liv, sweetie, I didn’t mean to wake you. I was just going to leave this here for you and then start on breakfast.”

I carefully took the rose from her and took a deep smell of the flower’s soft scent. I couldn’t help the smile on my face; Matt was just too cute sometimes. “Thank you. Was there a note or anything?”

Mrs. Sanders smiled down at me. “Just a card with your name on it, but you know Matt, he’ll probably call later.” She gave me a knowing look and I knew that she knew. “Boys will be boys, remember that next time he forgets to call. At least you get to hear from him more than I do,” she shook her head. “I love that boy but sometimes I can’t help but want to smack him upside the head. So, is this a surprise or an apology?”

I bit my lip as I thought about why Matt would send me a rose. “A little bit of both? I’m not sure. He was supposed to call me last night but didn’t, so maybe this is an ‘I’m sorry’ gesture.”

“Well, don’t stay mad at him too long,” Mrs. Sanders winked.

I laughed and smelled the rose again. “Oh, he definitely saw to it that I won’t.”

“Do me a favor, Liv, and wake Kara up, please?” Mrs. Sanders said before leaving the room.

I set the rose down on Kara’s desk and stretched. “Hey, K, time to wake up, sunshine. Your mom is making breakfast come on,” I shook her shoulder.

“No!” Kara’s reply was muffled by her pillow.

“Alright, but don’t blame me when all the bacon is gone, I gave you fair warning.”

“Bacon?” Kara sat up quickly. “I love bacon.” She jumped from her bed and ran from her room.

I took one last look at my rose and went downstairs. When I got to the kitchen, Kara was happily munching on a bacon strip. I poured myself some orange juice and sat next to Kara at the table. Mrs. Sanders was humming to herself as she cooked more bacon.

“Do you have a tutoring session today with your sexy math nerd?” Kara asked me.

I’d been hearing her make these kinds of comments all semester about Sam, my calculus tutor, and just rolled my eyes. “Yeah, in less than an hour.”

“So you admit you think he’s sexy?” Kara asked with a smirk.

“No, I don’t, but you already know that, so why do you keep making insinuations about me and Sam?”

“So you admit there’s a you and Sam?” Kara’s smirk widened. “That guy is so in love with you and you don’t even see it.”

“He’s not in love with me. Sam’s just a friend and he’s a great tutor. Besides, he’s a senior in college, there’s no way he’s interested in me when he’s surrounded by girls his own age. Plus, having an affair with your calculus teacher’s teaching assistant is such a cliché,” I threw a grape at her.

“So you admit you think he’s attractive?” Kara completely ignored what I said.

I sighed loudly. “He’s not ugly; he’s just not my type.”

“That’s a good thing,” Kara nodded and chewed on her bacon. “Cause if Matt ever found out that you spend at least two hours every Saturday with that math Adonis, he’d freak. Probably punch him or something too.”

“He wouldn’t,” I shook my head. “Matt knows about Sam.”

“So he knows how much time you spend with your Sam?”

“He’s not my Sam and yes, he does.”

“Does he know that Sam is hot?”

My brows furrowed together. “I don’t think it matters whether or not you think Sam is attractive. He’s just a friend.”

“Does Matt even know that Sam is a guy?”

That made me pause for a moment as I thought back on the times I talked to Matt about Sam. “I’m pretty sure. Why?”

“’Cause Sam is a girl’s name too. What if Matt thinks this whole time you’ve been being tutored by a pimply math chick that stays at home on weekends instead of this uber hot math geek who can’t keep his eyes off of you?”

I leveled a glance at Kara and just shook my head. “There’s nothing I can say to get you to shut up, is there?”

“Nope,” Kara grinned widely. “I’m simply incorrigible.”

I bit my lip to keep from smiling and threw another grape at Kara who dodged it with a laugh. “Thanks for breakfast, Mrs. Sanders, it was great. K, I’ll see you tomorrow and bring your books this time. Not bringing them won’t magically make mid-semester exams vanish,” I took my plate to the sink and rinsed it quickly.

“Bye, sweetie.” Mrs. Sanders hugged me. “Drive safe.”

“Promise. And I mean it, Kara. Don’t forget.”

“If I can’t see you then you’re not here,” Kara sang. “Which means I don’t have to go over and study tomorrow.”

“I’m picking you up and if I have to, I will drag you kicking and screaming back to my house. You can count on it.”

“Mom, Liv’s gonna kidnap me,” Kara complained like an eight year old.

“As long as she passes her exams, I won’t call the cops on you, Liv,” Mrs. Sanders said with a straight face.

Kara’s jaw dropped and I winked at her. “Be ready by noon. Bye!” I raced upstairs and grabbed my stuff and the rose Matt sent me before leaving the Sanders residence and hopping into my environmentally friendly car.

I hummed softly to the holiday songs on the radio as I drove home, tapping my fingers on the steering wheel every once in a while. Kara and I had a week and a half of school left before the winter formal and Christmas break. I really just couldn’t wait for the week to be over so that I could finally see Matt. it had been way too long since he’d last been home and I knew this week was going to go by epically slow making the time drag seemingly on and on.

I walked into my empty home and went into the kitchen for some water, my footsteps echoed loudly in the silence of the big house. I hated being on my own most of the time and it was times like this when I wished I had a brother or sister or even a bratty cousin who lived nearby just so I wasn’t so goddamn lonely all the time. Just so I could have someone, some family besides my absent parents.

Kara thought I was the lucky to be an only child and have parents away for months at a time. Normally, I just shrug off her comments and change the subject because I never wanted her to see how jealous I was of her. She got to see her parents every day — unless one of her parents was away on business but even then, they’d be back in a few days — and she had a brother that she grew up with. She got along with her cousins, had aunts and uncles that offered advice and there was always a birthday party or family barbeque that she complained about having to attend even though she knew she’d have fun. Kara was definitely the lucky one.

I sighed and went up to my room to grab my Calculus book, notebook, calculator and my Macbook. I wasn’t really looking forward to spending the next two hours on math but I needed to keep my grades up if I wanted to be valedictorian come graduation. I needed to graduate at the very top of my class. My parents wouldn’t be disappointed if I wasn’t ranked number one but I would be.

At the moment, my biggest nemesis was Mindy Crenshaw, who I shared every advanced class with. She was completely brainy and a total ass-kisser to all of our teachers — she even sucked up to Mr. Brody. She’d go out of her way to do or say anything if she thought it would bother me. Needless to say, I didn’t like her very much but I ignored her as much as I could.

This is where Sam Miller comes into play, my ace in the hole. Mindy was a wizard when it came to math while I struggled a bit. But with Sam’s help, I was definitely doing better. He knew all about my rivalry with Mindy and he always let me know who had the top average in class.

I changed into a different top and a pair of worn skinny jeans and grabbed my things. I turned the lights off and hurried through my home. I was running late to meet Sam. I quickly locked my house up, got into my car and drove to the library.

I pulled up into the library’s parking lot and picked up my things before walking to the large glass building. I saw Sam sitting on the stairs, his black messenger bag at his side, looking down at his phone.

Sam was as tall as Matt with green eyes and he was a little on the thin side but he wasn’t wimpy, he had some lean muscle on him. I suppose he wasn’t bad looking, but I was biased. To me, no one else could be better looking than Matt.

“Waiting for me?” I smiled at him as he brushed his dirty blonde hair out of his eyes.

“Hey, Liv,” Sam stood up and hugged me. “Looks like we’re gonna have to find somewhere else to party.”

“What? Why?”

Sam pointed behind him and I read the sign on the library door.

“Closed for reshelving? It would’ve been nice if they had mentioned something last week,” I rubbed my forehead. “What now?”

“We could go somewhere else and study? Today doesn’t have to be a total bust. That is, of course, if you want to,” he smiled shyly as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Nicky’s?” I suggested.

Sam shook his head. “Too noisy.”

“Well,” I said after a moment. “We could just go to my house. It’s really quiet over there. Too quiet really, my house makes the library seem like a Justin Bieber concert filled with screaming teeny boppers.”

Sam laughed, the corners of his eyes crinkling slightly as he slung his bag on his shoulder. “Alright, let’s get going.”

Since Sam took the bus to the library, he rode with me to my house. We made small talk about class and Mindy the whole way.

“No way this is where you live.” Sam’s eyes were wide as he took in my house.

“I have the keys to prove it,” I said jiggling my keys. “Come on, I’ll give you the tour. Although, don’t get too excited, it’s just a house with floors, a roof, windows and doors.”

“Does this tour include your bedroom?” Sam smirked at me.

I laughed. “You wish, college boy,” I unlocked the front door and let Sam precede me into the house. “Welcome to my house.”

“Mansion more like,” Sam muttered. “Damn, this place is huge. Are your parents still out of town?”

“Yup, I’m all alone here. Come on, I’ll show you around and give you the lay of the land before we start with the learning.”

I led Sam through my house and couldn’t stop feeling slightly nervous whenever Sam stood too close to me or when our hands brushed together as we walked. I blamed Kara for what she said at breakfast. I wouldn’t be feeling like this if I didn’t listen to her in the first place. Sam was just a friend and there was nothing wrong with being alone with him at my house while my boyfriend was on the other side of the country.

I kept the conversation light as we walked through the house keeping more distance between me and Sam. He was just ambling slowly along at my side taking in all of the art on the walls and the statues. He paid particular attention to that damn phallic statue of my father’s. I was blushing the whole time we were talking about it.



“Yo, Liv, are you listening to me?” Sam asked. “You keep looking your phone like you’re expecting it to explode or something. Are you expecting a call?”

“Sorry, Sam,” I grimaced. “I guess I just can’t focus on today’s lesson.”

“Are you waiting to hear from Mr. Perfect?” He dropped his pencil into the crease of his teacher’s edition Calculus book and arched an expectant brow at me.

I shot Sam a look, he knew how much it bugged me when he called Matt that. “He said he’d call today, I just don’t know when,” I admitted sneaking another quick look at my phone. “And I never called him perfect.” Not that I didn’t think Matt was perfect, I’d just never said that to Sam.

He chuckled. “Teenage girls always think their boyfriends are perfect.”

I rolled my eyes and tried to steer the conversation away from Matt and back to calculus. “So what were you saying about simplifying negative integers?”

“We’ve been working at this for over two hours. How about we call it a day and if you need more help, I’ll answer your questions in class?” Sam asked.

I nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

“Like you’ll be able to concentrate any longer anyway,” Sam scoffed and shut his book. “You’ve been checking your phone every five minutes,” his smiled faded. “Seriously though, did he forget to call again?”

I nodded. “But he did text me last night saying he would call today. I just really can’t wait to hear from him, even if it’s just a two minute phone call. And he sent me a rose today. Isn’t that sweet?”

“Really?” Sam’s eyebrows rose. “Wow that was nice of him. Was there a card or anything?”

“There was, but it just had my name on it,” I shrugged. “Matt’s romantic just not overly romantic, which is a good thing. My ex-boyfriend practically killed me with all of his over the top romantic gestures, not that I didn’t appreciate it, it was just a little overwhelming sometimes. Matt knows I like to keep things simple. Simple is good.”

“So things are going good with you two then?”

“As good as they can be without Matt actually being here,” I shrugged. “I just can’t wait for him to come home. Maybe then you’ll stop being so nice to me and listening to my whining about how much I miss him,” I chuckled.

“I don’t mind listening to you whine,” Sam nudged my shoulder.

“Yeah, well that’s because you’re way too nice to tell me to shut up,” I laughed. “I swear I don’t know how you put up with me sometimes.”

“You’re not giving yourself enough credit here, Liv. You’re great.”

The look in Sam’s eyes was way too intense and I realized just how close we were sitting at Carver’s old desk in the den. I cleared my throat and moved away from him slightly. “Thanks. You’re great, too, Sam. Who knew I could be friends with a teacher’s assistant? Especially one that likes math.” I made my tone purposely light to ease the sudden tension between us.

Sam smiled after a moment but it didn’t reach his eyes and looked away from me. I took a deep breath and closed up my books and laptop. “Did you need me to drop you off somewhere?”

“Yeah. If it’s not too much trouble, can you take me back to campus? I’ve got some things I need to catch up on.”

“It’s no problem at all.”

The conversation during the car ride was light and easy as I drove Sam back to his dorm. He thanked me for the ride and said he’d see me in class on Monday.

As soon as I got home, my cell phone rang and I saw Matt’s name on the screen.

“Hi,” I answered breathlessly a huge grin on my face as I skipped up to my room and fell back onto my bed.

“God, baby, it’s so good to hear your voice,” Matt sighed. “I’m sorry I didn’t call last night. We had a real crappy show and I was in a pissy mood, but I can’t wait to come home and see you next week.”

“Just see me?” I smirked. “There isn’t anything else you want to do with me when you come home?”

“Don’t do this to me right now,” Matt whispered gravelly, his voice sent pleasant shivers down my spine that spread through my whole body. “I’m in a crowded van, surrounded by dudes and I really don’t want to get hard in front of them.”

I giggled. “I miss you.”

“I miss you, too, Liv. One more show and I’ll be on my way to you so fast. Nothing’s gonna keep me away.”

“Promise?”

“Promise. I got you a little present.”

I could hear the smile in his voice and it made my grin bigger. “Really now? What is it?”

“Can’t tell you,” he laughed. “It’s a surprise.”

“Matt,” I whined. “I hate when you do that.”

“I know, baby. Hey, I gotta go, it’s my turn to drive. I love you.”

“Love you, too, oh and thank you for the rose. It’s beautiful.”

“Rose?” He asked quickly. “What rose? I didn’t send you a rose, Liv.”

“What?” Cold dread washed over me as I sat up staring at the deep red rose perched on my desk. “I got it this morning at your house. If you didn’t send it, who did?”