Holden really wanted to see Liv again. After their short conversation about the giraffe, he couldn't stop thinking about her. All through the wake, all he could think about was Liv, Liv, Liv. Through his mom's shadow puppet tribute, all he could think about was her beautiful golden hair. When his grandmother was talking about him as a child, all he could think about was that adorable nervous laugh she made when she was hiding something. Oh how he missed that laugh.
When his family all went inside for food, he saw his chance. Giddy with excitement, he tried to control himself as he walked across the street. When he reached the door, he saw that they were indeed hiding something, something big. A giraffe statue.
He tried to strike a nonchalant pose leaning against the doorway.
"What you doing, guy?" He asked, trying to stay calm
They accidentally let go of the statue and it rolled through their living room and crashed into the doorway. Liv turned around and began twisting her hair with her fingers and laughing that adorable laugh. Holden tried not to smile even though she was being so adorable.
As Liv scrambled for an explanation, Holden composed himself and was ready to accuse them of stealing.
"You guys stole the giraffe!" he exclaimed as he marched into their home.
Liv followed after him, apologizing for ruining the wake. She was just so cute, he couldn't stand being mad at her any longer.
"Oh please! Your guys didn't ruin the wake!" he said, consoling her. He tried to make her laugh by mentioning his mother's shadow puppets, although he wasn't lying when he told her just how terrible they were.
"You're not mad?" She asked, looking truly sincere, "That's… kind of unexpected."
How could he stay mad at a face like that? However, he knew that they had to get the giraffe back soon. And by soon, he meant NOW.
She asked him for help and, of course, he said he would.
"Come on! Get in there hot and hungry Holden."
He could have sworn his heart skipped a beat. Did she just call him hot?! Talk about a freudian slip.
He tried to act calm and confused rather than excited, "I thought it was hungry, hungry Holden."
"Hey thanks for helping us out, Holden," Liv said as they were lowering the giraffe into his front yard.
"Yeah of course. No problem at all," HE didn't want to go back to boarding school. All he wanted was to stay here with Liv forever.
Before he could forget, he wanted to undo everything he had every done to hurt her. He knew that he couldn't fix their front lawn (besides, the damage he had done was long gone), but he could give Liv her Goodbye Puppy pen.
"By the way, I totally think you're a thief," he said, trying to break the ice before he gave it to her.
Liv looked taken aback by what he had just said.
"But it takes one to know one."
He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to Liv, hoping her reaction wouldn't be angry, "I believe this is yours."
"What's this?" she asked feigning surprise, "Some kind of multi-ink Goodbye Puppy pen that any third grade girl would treasure because of the magical dreams it could make real?"
It was so adorable how excited she got over her pen.
Before he got too nervous, he knew he had to rip off the bandaid and tell her why he stole it.
"In third grade, I thought you were cute."
There it was. He had just said what he had hoped he had never said, but dreamed of saying.
"So I stole your pen. It made sense at the time, but then again I ate a lot of paste." He tried to smile at her, but he couldn't bear to look at her, worried that her expression would be disgusted.
Karen left her position of making sure the giraffe got onto the platform properly to tell them to speed up the process, "Less talking, more rope."
This interruption distracted Liv, causing her to drop the pen. Holden bent down, planning to pick it up, but he was not the only one.
"You dropped this," he said, staring into her eyes. He could get lost in those eyes. He could just stare into them all day. Her beautiful emerald eyes.
"Thanks," she said.
The door to his house opened, but he didn't care. He could stand like this all night.
"Thank you all for coming. I'm sure it would have meant the world to-"
Before Holden could hear the rest of the statement, Liv yanked his arm and pulled him away from the lawn and into the bushes in front of his house.
