The Neighbors

2.16 Tabloids, Stalkers, and Shopping, Oh My!

Three days after Harry returned to LA, another picture hit the tabloids. There was a massive crowd around Harry, but one person in particular was leaning in close and it looked like Harry was kissing her. I examined the picture closely, knowing it couldn't be what it looked like, but it sure looked authentic.

Harry insisted that he remembered nothing about a girl even getting that close, let alone kissing him.

"You believe me, don't you?" He asked.

"Of course, I do. I know that it's hard for most females to resist you," I teased.

Two days later, I received another text from Cortin Valow: Did you enjoy your family Thanksgiving? And the cocktail party? Too bad I wasn't invited.

I wasn't really scared by this new text, just irritated. Seriously, why couldn't this person just leave us alone?

I called Niall and told him about the text. He said he'd come by later in the day to look at it.

He arrived late in the afternoon and I showed him the text. He tried to find out where the text came from, but he was unsuccessful. It seemed that all the messages were coming from different places – various cell phone numbers, land lines, computers – and hardly ever from the same place twice.

"Just keep track of any more texts, okay? And it would be helpful if you could unblock Cortin from Facebook and Twitter and let the spam email messages come through. We could possibly track them more easily that way, too. Also, let me get some information from your computer so I can gain remote access, if that's okay with you."

"Yes, of course. Whatever you need to do."

Niall sat down at my computer and started clicking around.

"How was your Thanksgiving with Hope?" I asked.

"Oh, it was perfect," he smiled. "And she's still here, actually. She's going to stay through Christmas. You know, so we can do some wedding planning. And then I'll go back to Michigan with her, to spend some time with her family and celebrate the New Year with them."

The smile on Niall's face said it all. He was smitten.

"Well, maybe she and I can go shopping some time," I offered.

"Yeah, she'd love that, I'm sure." He punched Hope's number into my cell phone and then gave it back to me.

After Niall left, I cautiously unblocked Cortin Valow from my contacts. I expected to be bombarded with hateful messages, but nothing happened. I walked away from the computer feeling like I had just left the front door unlocked.

The next few days were a flurry of Christmas activities at the kids' school, Christmas baking with my mom, and of course, doing some Christmas shopping.

When I finally had a chance to sit down at my computer, I was swamped with messages from CV.

Stop ignoring me!

How's Harry?

I just want to be your friend.

I can help Harry with his career.

Loving Harry's new album. Such a hot picture of Harry on the cover.

The Twitter messages were more creepy. Cortin had tweeted Harry hundreds of times using the hashtag #HarrysNo1fan. But the direct messages to me were downright evil.

Harry's too good for you.

You're too old for Harry. Get a life!

I'm going to steal him from you.