Hidden Behind the Lines

I couldn’t tear my eyes off of the rose sitting on my desk. My thoughts whirled crazily in my mind trying to figure out who could have sent it to me. Immediately, Sam was the first person I could think of but I mentally crossed him out; he was my friend and he knew I was with Matt so there’s no way he would send me a rose. Plus, he seemed surprised when I told him about it earlier, so it couldn’t have been from him. Despite all the crap Kara says about Sam crushing on me, there’s just no way any of it is true.

“Liv? Are you still there? Answer me, dammit! Olivia!”

I snapped my eyes closed to block out the rose and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Matt, calm down.”

“How the fuck am I supposed to calm down when some punk is sending you flowers?”

“First of all, it’s only one rose,” I rolled my eyes. “So there’s no need to make a big deal out of this. Second, I don’t know who sent it, it could have been some kind of joke you know, so again, there’s no need to make a big deal out of this. I’m going to get rid of it.”

Matt cursed away from the phone. “I still don’t like that someone out there is sending you a flower, joke or not,” he sighed. “Look, we’re heading out now and I’m next to drive so I gotta go. Tomorrow night’s our last show and then I’ll be coming home to you. I love you, Liv.”

“Love you too, Matt. Call me later and don’t forget okay? I don’t care if you’re in a pissy mood either,” I laughed softly.

“Bye, babe.”

“Bye, Matt,” I hung up and tossed my phone aside. “I wish you were already here,” I said to my empty room.

I stood up and softly traced the rose’s silky petals with my finger before I threw it in the trash bin. I had no clue who could have sent me that rose but it creeped me out that someone out there knew me well enough to send the rose to Matt’s house instead of mine. I mean, sure mine and Kara’s plans were always the same come Fridays and most of our friends knew about our movie marathons and even came over occasionally to watch movies with us, but still it was slightly scary.

I shook my head, refusing to spend another second thinking about this whole rose thing. I started up my laptop and checked my email, messed around on Facebook for a bit, looked up recipes for cakes and pies for the holiday season, anything to keep my mind off of Matt not being here and whoever was behind the rose.

After spending an hour online and finding only six recipes that I wanted to try out, I closed my laptop and pulled out my novel for English class. Even though I’d already done the assigned reading on Tuesday, I decided to go back and write notes about what I read, some things that I thought were symbolic about the novel and some questions I wanted to ask in class.

Twenty minutes later my phone buzzed and I saw that I had gotten a text from Kara.

How was your study date* with Mr. Sexy? ;)

I shook my head as I called Kara. “It was fine,” I said when she answered, rolling my eyes when I heard her laugh.

“I bet,” she chuckled.

“Only the library was closed so we ended up coming to my house to study instead,” I said finishing up my notes for English and capping my pen.

“You guys were at your house alone? On your own?”

“That’s usually what alone means, K.” I zipped up my backpack. “So what are you up to?”

“Oh!” Kara exclaimed. “Don’t think you can change the subject so easily, Olivia Leigh Masters. I need details, woman!”

“Nothing happened. I showed him around for a bit then we studied and then I drove him back to campus; that was it. When I got home, your brother called and told me that he didn’t send me the rose.”

“Are you serious?”

“Really serious. He kinda got pissy over the phone saying that he doesn’t want some punk sending me flowers.”

“Sounds like you’ve had a busy day,” Kara chuckled. “So you have no idea who could have sent you the rose?”

I shook my head. “No. I threw it out. After finding out that Matt didn’t send it to me, I got creeped out and chucked it. Anyway, I’m hoping whoever sent it is just playing a joke or something. I mean, it seems like something Jimmy would do to mess with Matt and rile him up. When the guys come home he’ll probably ’fess up to sending it.”

After a moment Kara answered. “Yeah, sounds like something Jimmy would pull to watch Matt get all jealous. I mean, he does know where you’d be on a Saturday morning so it isn’t that far of a reach for him to have done it.”

“That’s what I thought, too.” I silently sighed in relief; if Kara thought the same, then it was probably true and made me feel a lot better about the whole thing. The gate bell sounding made me squeal a bit. “Hey, someone’s at the gate, hold on,” I said as I made my way downstairs, my phone still at my ear, I could hear Kara singing along to the Phineas and Ferb theme song. “Hello?” I pressed the buzzer.

“Hello, I’m here from Madison’s Decorating Company to set up your house,” a male voice said.

“Oh, come on in,” I pressed the button for the gate and opened up the door to see three white vans with the MDC logo on it park in the drive way, one van had a tree strapped to the top. “Hey, K, the Christmas decorators are here.”

Kara squealed and I moved away from the phone before she could bust my ear drum. “I’ll be right there!” She hung up without saying goodbye.

I slid my phone into my pocket with a smile and went out to meet the decorators. Every year my mom hired the same company to come and set up our light display outside and get the house all Christmas’d up. Kara liked to watch everything as it happened and occasionally helping out wherever she wanted — at least helping is what she called it. Last year she pissed off the light guys and was sent inside to keep everyone safe.

“Hey, I’m Liv Masters,” I held my hand out and quickly checked out the crew. They were different people from last year; at least Kara had a new group to annoy this year.

“Dex Parks.”

His grip was firm as he shook my hand; his light green eyes never strayed from mine as he introduced himself. He was a good looking early twenty-something year old, with his sandy blonde hair, square jaw and medium build, he looked like he walked straight out of the pages of a Calvin Klein catalog. “Where should we start?”

“How many people have you got with you?” I asked taking a mental count of the group of men and women that I saw. Most of them were young, no doubt working to pay off student loans from school or saving up for the holiday season.

“Ten including me,” he answered curtly.

Someone’s a bit grumpy, I bit my lip to keep from smiling. Poor guy had probably been decorating houses nonstop for the past week or so and judging by the amount of papers on his clipboard, he has a lot more work to do before the season is over.

“Okay,” I nodded. “Maybe you should spilt the group in half and have one team decorate inside and the other set up the lights out here.

Dex nodded. “Sounds good to me. Let me chat with everyone and we’ll get started,” his smile was tight as he left, almost forced. Yeah, someone was definitely a little grumpy.

I headed back inside and went into the kitchen. I scanned through a small binder where I kept several take out menus from places that delivered and pulled out a few menus and started placing orders so I could feed everyone some lunch when they took a break.

Ten minutes later, I went back out to see what was going on. There were several boxes in my living room with red, green, silver and gold poking out from the tops. Looks like mom wanted a traditional theme this year. I kept out of the way as the decorators got started. I hummed Christmas songs to myself as I watched over them for a bit, noticing that Dex was not among the five in the house.

“Where do you want the tree?”

I looked over to see Dex and two other men hauling in a large ten foot tree, I could smell the pine from across the room and a small smile lit my face. I loved the holidays; the movies, the music, the food, the smells and all the gift giving.

“Over here,” I nodded my head and got the three to set the tree by the fire place. “Thanks,” I said.

“No problem,” one of the guys answered.

“Just so you know,” I turned to Dex. “I’ve ordered food for everyone, so whenever you all take a break you’ll have something to eat.”

Dex’s eyes widened for a moment before he flashed me a small smile. It looked genuine for once, and almost surprised, like he wasn’t used to the clients he worked for being generous. “Thank you.”

I just nodded and left them to it occasionally helping someone out when they needed a hand. Kara showed up and her eyes lit up at all the commotion going around a large smile splitting her face. I noticed her checking Dex out every few minutes and chuckled. Sure the guy was attractive but he wasn’t Matt.

“Mm-mmm mmm,” Kara hummed. “What I wouldn’t give for that guy to stuff my stocking this year.”

I followed her gaze and laughed when I noticed Dex bent over a box of lights outside. “Perverted much?”

“Like you weren’t thinking the same thing. Look at him.” She swept her arm out. “The guy could model, he’s so hot.”

“I thought the same thing,” I laughed. “Come on, stop perving on Dex,” I nudged her shoulder.

“But it’s so much fun,” Kara pouted.



Three hours later, my house looked like a virtual winter wonderland, sans the snow. Kara had been running around like a sugar crazed elf for the past hour, I was seriously rethinking letting her sample all the goodies I’d baked. She’d been going on for five minutes about roasting chestnuts.

“Can we roast chestnuts over an open fire? Huh, Liv, can we? Can we? Can we? Can we? Please!” Kara jumped up and down, her dark hair flying around her head. “Please, please. Pleasssseee. I’m not gonna stop asking until you say yes, so just say yes already! So can we? Can we? Can we? Can we? Please?! Liv, say yes. Please can we roast chest—”

“Oh, for the love of Pete!” Dex threw his clipboard down. “Say yes and I’ll bring the fucking chestnuts!” He groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose, the tips of his ears were a light pink.

I turned back to Kara and stiffed my giggles with my hand. “Sure, K, we can roast chestnuts over an open fire.”

“Yay! Woo hoo! Thank you Liv and Dex, you guys rock, I love you, I love you, I love you,” Kara started singing and running around the house.

I shared a look with Dex, whom Kara and I had managed to befriend in the short time he’d been here. “That’s all on you, bud,” I shook my head at him in mock disappointment.

He shot me a glare as Kara’s voice got even louder. “And who’s the one who loaded her with all that sugar in the first place?”

My mouth popped open. “I, I—”

“Yeah, that’s right, you did.” He picked his clipboard back up. “Okay, I’ve gotta jet but I’ll be back to meet your boyfriend and his band next week.”

“Don’t forget the chestnuts!” Kara yelled. “And bring some marshmallows too!”

Dex chuckled and gave me a short hug. “Sign here, please.”

I took the clipboard and hastily signed my name just as Kara ran up to us. She tackled Dex into a hug and I had to pry her off of him at the door when she wouldn’t let go.

“Text you later,” I told him as I tightened my grip on Kara’s wiggling frame to keep her from chasing after Dex.

“Liv,” Kara slumped against me no longer trying to get away.

“Yeah, K?”

“I miss Dex,” she pouted.

I laughed. “He’s only been gone, like thirty seconds.”

“I know, it doesn’t matter.”

“We’ll see him next week, you know,” I bit back my grin.

Kara shook her head a small smile on her lips. “Yeah and he’d better not forget to bring the chestnuts and marshmallows. If he does, I’m gonna kick him in his jingle bells so hard. Anyway, I gotta head out. Thanks for letting me know about today, you know how much I love watching everyone decorate your house.” She started moving towards the door, keys to her mom’s car in hand.

“I thought you were gonna stay until after dark so we could see the lights display.”

“I can’t tonight. Some other time, okay? I’ll see you tomorrow for the torture you promised me.”

“It’s called studying,” I said the word slowly.

She shrugged. “Tomato, potahto. Catch ya later, home skillet.”

“Later, Kara,” I waved as she shut the door behind her. I moved toward the door and saw on the camera monitor that she was already at the car. I pressed the button and watched the gates shut firmly.

I made my way into the kitchen and began cleaning up the minor mess left over from lunch, storing away some of the food that wasn’t eaten before going to my room and tossing myself onto the couch in front of my flat screen.

With all of my homework done and nothing else to do, I decided to catch something on Netflix to pass some time before going to bed. I picked some foreign horror movie and settled down under a blanket.

Seven more days until Matt gets home.



The rest of the week flew by before I even knew it, mostly because I was determined to be busy rather than focus on how soon Matt would get home. Kara had come over to “endure cruel torture” in hopes to prepare for our midterms. I know I did well on them; I had studied enough. Kara had some reservations about how she did. I was fairly confident she did well but Kara believed differently.

“I’m so glad today is Friday,” Kara said around a yawn as we stopped by my locker that morning before our first classes.

“Me too, the guys will be here tomorrow. I can’t wait to see Matt.” My grin was huge and I hadn’t stopped smiling since I woke up and I had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to anytime soon. Only thirty something more hours and Matt would be here. We talked every night this past week but it still wasn’t enough since our conversations lasted less than ten minutes. I needed him home.

Kara grinned back at me. “I know. I’m so excited to see Brian.”

I turned back to my locker and quickly put in my combo. There was a gold gift bag sitting on top of my books and I frowned. “Hey, Kara.”

“Yeah?”

“Did you put this in my locker?” I turned to look at her with a raised brow.

Kara shook her head. “Nope. Why? Is something in there?”

I reached in and took the bag out looking for a card. I found a small white envelope and saw my name on it. Sharing a look with Kara, I opened the envelope and read the card.

I hope you loved the rose I sent you last week,
but I hope you’ll love this more.
I’ll be thinking of how much more beautiful
you’ll look in it.
Wear it and think of me, love.

“It’s not signed,” I murmured before moving the red tissue paper aside to see what was in the bag.

“Holy shit,” Kara covered her mouth as she started at the white lacy lingerie teddie — that would show more than it covered if worn — I removed from the bag.

Holy shit was right. I shoved the garment back into the bag and threw it back into my locker hoping that no one else in the hallway saw it.

“What the hell?” I asked. “How did whoever gave me that get into my locker?” Kara was the only one who knew my combination and I knew she wouldn’t tell anyone else what it was.

“I don’t know, but that was fucking creepy,” Kara shook her head. “Who do you think—”

“I don’t know,” I cut her off. “But I know one thing for sure; Jimmy didn’t send me that rose last week to piss Matt off.”

The bell rang and Kara grimaced.

“I’ve gotta go, but I’ll see you at lunch, Liv.”

I nodded. “Okay, later.” I made my way to class in a bit of a daze, trying to figure out who would want to give me lingerie. I didn’t have a single clue as to it could be and I didn’t want to think about what the surprise in my locker could mean. Doing my best, I put the contents of that gold bag into the back of my mind and focused on my lessons all day. All I had to do was get through today, go home with Kara and then I’d see Matt tomorrow.

The bell finally rang signaling the end of the day and I sighed in relief. I started packing up my stuff and noticed a shadow fall across my desk. I looked up to see Sam frowning down at me as he sat on the desk next to me. “Hey.”

“Are you alright, Liv?” He asked, his brows furrowed in concern. “You seemed out of it today and you didn’t participate at all. You even let Mindy answer today’s extra credit problem.”

I shot him a small smile that felt more like a grimace as I shouldered my back pack. “I’m fine, thanks for asking, Sam.”

Sam didn’t look convinced. “Are you sure, Liv? Cause if you need to talk, I’m here. Whether it’s about school or anything else, you know that, right?”

“I know and thanks, Sam, really, but I’m fine.”

“You’re lying,” he said. “I can tell, but I can’t make you talk if you don’t want to,” he shook his head and stood up. “See you tomorrow, Liv.”

“Crap,” I slapped my forehead. “I can’t go to tutoring tomorrow. Matt’s coming home and—”

“That’s right,” Sam nodded. “Totally slipped my mind. Well, I guess I’ll see you on Monday then. Oh, and by the way, I already graded everyone’s midterms, congrats, you beat Mindy by one question.”

“Thanks for letting me know,” I smiled. I was halfway to the door when I turned back to Sam. “We’re having a welcome home party tomorrow at Matt’s parents’ place, if you’re not busy, maybe you could stop by?”

Sam smiled at me. “Sounds good to me. I didn’t have anything planned except for our tutoring session anyway.”

“I’ll text you the details and address later. See you, Sam,” I waved.

“Later, Liv.”

I walked slowly down the emptying halls and made my way to my locker. I’d managed to avoid my locker all day which was easy considering most of my teachers were showing movies in class. Spinning my combo in, I grabbed the gold bag and felt the hair on my nape stand on end. I felt like I was being watched. My eyes scanned the hallway, there were a few people milling about but no one was looking at me directly, and yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching me.

I slammed my locker shut and walked towards the parking lot. I’d feel better once I was at Kara’s. I tossed the bag into the backseat of my car and started the engine, not letting my eyes stray to the backseat as I drove. The line out of the student parking lot was short and soon enough I was driving towards Kara’s. My radio was set to a Christmas music station and I was humming along to the songs I knew.

When I got to Kara’s she was just getting out of her car and waved over at me. I met up with her as she was unlocking the front door. “So what’s the plan for tonight?” She asked as we made our way to her room.

“Same thing we do every Friday night,” I shrugged. “The only question is what kind of movie marathon we’re gonna have. Action? Horror? Romantic comedies? Buddy cop movies? Christmas themed movies? What do you think?” I tossed my stuff down and turned to face Kara, a thoughtful frown on her lips.

“Harry Potter marathon?” She suggested.

“Sounds good to me,” I smiled.

“But let’s start with the fourth movie, that’s when things kind of pick up,” Kara said looking through her DVDs for the movies.

“Okay, that’s cool.”

We started the fourth Harry Potter movie and sat in our bean bag chairs. Kara, thankfully, listened to me when I said that I didn’t want to talk about my locker surprise at lunch earlier. Truth be told, I just wanted to forget that this morning happened and after school when I felt someone was watching me.

We paused the fifth movie about halfway into it so we could go down and get some snacks to munch on. The popcorn was popping when Kara turned to look at me.

“I know you said you didn’t want to talk about what happened this morning but, Liv, I think you have a stalker.”

I shut my eyes tight as Kara said the one thing that had been floating in the back of my mind all day.

Stalker.

Now that Kara had put the word out there, it all seemed too real to me.

I rubbed my face and sighed. “I was thinking that, too,” I admitted. “I just didn’t want to say anything.”

Kara shot me a small smile. “What are we going to do about it?”

I quickly ran through the options in my mind, without some kind of proof or a clue about who could behind the gifts I’d received, there wasn’t much that could be done. “The only thing we can do,” I answered. “Wait for this person, whoever it is, to mess up and reveal themselves.”

“Liv, we have to tell the police at least.”

“Tell them what? That someone sent me a rose and broke into my locker to place some lingerie in there? Kara, without knowing who did it, the police can’t do much about it.”

“Well, they could look over the camera footage to see if whoever gave you the lingerie was caught and they could dust your locker for prints.”

I shook my head. “There’s no way they could find anything from dusting my locker. There would be too many sets of prints and we’d still be left without much evidence. As far as the cameras go, maybe they did catch something,” I shrugged. “But I’ve seen too many cop shows and movies to know that nothing could be done about a stalking situation until things escalate.”

“Escalate?” Kara asked as she took the popcorn from the microwave and poured it into a bowl.

“Yeah, like if I were to get hurt or have an attempt made on my life.”

Kara froze and slowly looked up at me. “You don’t think that could happen do you?”

I could see the worry swim in Kara’s hazel eyes and I didn’t want to worry her more. “No,” I shook my head firmly. “Besides, judging from the gifts,” I grimaced, “it seems like whoever this person is has a crush on me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s creepy as fuck just thinking about it, but so far, there hasn’t been any real harm done. If things get worse, I won’t hesitate to call the cops and my lawyer.”

“If you thought Matt freaked out over some guy sending you a rose, imagine his reaction when he finds out some perv sent you some see through lingerie.”

I moved to get us some drinks not wanting to think about what would happen when I told Matt; he’d definitely flip out. “Can we just forget about this for now? I don’t want to think about it anymore.”

“Sure,” Kara nodded. “I don’t want to think about it anymore either.”

We went back upstairs and started the movie again. Kara fell asleep during the sixth movie, some things never change. I picked up all our trash and popcorn that landed on the floor instead of in our mouths and took everything downstairs.

When I was in the kitchen, the door flew open and I nearly screamed. My heart was beating fast inside of my chest and I broke out into a huge smile.

Matt stood in the doorway just staring at me, his smile mirroring mine. “Honey, I’m home.”

I wasted no time in running over to him and pulling him into a tight hug. I breathed in his familiar cologne and sighed. “You’re here.”

Matt’s arms wound firmly around my waist pulling me as close as humanly possible to his hard chest, his warmth seeping through my pajamas. “I’m here,” he whispered into my ear. “God, it feels so good to hold you,” he said softly as he kissed my temple, moving his lips to my forehead, my cheeks, my nose and finally my lips.

Our mouths moved hungrily against each others’ and when his tongue brushed my lips, I opened my mouth for him immediately. I moaned into his mouth as his hands cupped my butt and he raised me up. I wound my legs around his waist and pulled away from him. “I missed you, so much,” I breathed out. “I thought you weren’t getting here until tomorrow?”

“I missed you, too,” he said between kisses. “And I couldn’t wait to see you so, we sped all day and didn’t stop for anything but gas until we got here.” Matt’s lips moved against mine once more, how I’d missed being close to him.

“Whoa! PDA alert.”

I broke away from Matt again and we both turned to the voice that interrupted our reunion.

“Hey, Liv,” a short, pretty blonde smiled at me.

I could feel the confusion on my face. “Hi,” my voice was unsure as I lowered my legs and stood on my own close to Matt as his hands moved to my waist keeping us pressed closely together.

“Oh, I’m Stephanie Grant by the way. So, Matt, where should I put my stuff?”

Where should she put her stuff? It was then that I noticed Stephanie had two bags with her.

“I’ll show you to the guest room,” Matt said and pecked my cheek one more time. “Be right back, babe. The guys still outside?” he asked her.

“Yeah, they’re sorting out their bags. It was nice finally meeting you, Liv. Matt never once stopped talking about you all tour,” she smiled and ruffled her hair as she passed me to follow Matt.

A few minutes later, Jimmy and Brian came inside and hugged me hello.

“Is Kara asleep?” Brian asked.

“Yeah, you know K, she can’t stay up for anything.”

“Great,” Brian smiled. “I’m gonna go and wake her up. See you later, Liv,” he said moving towards the stairs.

“So,” I turned to Jimmy with my arms crossed over my chest. “Who’s Stephanie?”

Jimmy turned his blue eyes to me, his mouth popped open. “You mean Matt didn’t tell you about her?”

“No,” I shook my head slowly. “He never mentioned her.”

“Wooo hoo hoooo. Someone’s in trouble,” Jimmy sang, a crooked smile on his lips.