highlight layer crossing multiple buttons

Hi,
I have a menu with 5 buttons along the left, and 5 buttons along the right. In the middle of the screen is a circle. I have lines moving from the circle up to each button which act as highlights. The problem I'm having is that the bounding box for each button is now including other buttons because it is moving down to include the highlight which begins below the button. As a result of this when I select button 1, the highlight for buton 2, and 3 are also lighting up (I'm assuming it's because the button 1 bounding box goes down to button 2 and 3). Is there a way to have a highlight extend beyond the borders of the button this way?