PERMANENT - Leonardo DiCaprio

Chapter 19 - Normal State of Affairs

Friday 9.55am

After a sleepless night, I only drifted off to sleep just before sunrise, and now the knock on the door awoke me from my slumber. I felt disoriented, but heaved myself out of bed and lumbered over to the door.

"Hi love," Kathy cooed as I opened the door. "Oh hi...Kathy?" It was more of a question than a greeting, but I wasn't used to getting wake up calls from her.

"I didn't see you at breakfast today and I just wanted to check if you were okay. I heard you come back late from the shoot last night so I thought I'd see if you were up and ready to go." I smiled at her kindness – she really was an astounding lady.

"Yeah I'm okay, I'm not on set until 10 in the evening though so I was just gonna lie in, maybe get room service? You know, not leave my room and all that...."

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't know! Oh honey I'm sorry, it's just that I saw Leo driving off already so I thought it was a bit strange." At the mention of Leo's name, my face dropped, something that she must've picked up on.

"Is everything okay with you two? Gosh, I mean, you were inseparable only last week and now," she motioned with her arms. I forced a smile, but no way was I telling her anything.

"Yeah yeah we're okay," Technically it wasn't a lie – we had talked it out, but realistically, we were far from 'okay'. "Must just be the long work hours taking effect." This too was true. My lack of sleep wasn't only affecting me physically, but mentally as well.

"Alright well, I'll be off." She concluded. "Okay," I nodded. "I'll tell Leo you said hi," she laughed as she turned away. I just closed the door (maybe a bit rudely, but she was already walking away).

I plodded back to my bed and got under the covers, covering my head with the sheets, and fell asleep again.

//

It was now 11.40pm and we were on set up on deck. Jim had just finished talking us through the scene. Leo and I had only met again briefly as we were rushed off to different places, but he seemed okay with me and it wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be.

"Okay aaaaand action!"

We stumbled through the doors, laughing like hysterically and holding hands as we ran onto the deck. We dragged each other around until we stopped in the middle of the deck so that the cameras could get a good shot.

"Did you see those guys' faces?" Leo said between laughs. "Did you see the..." I placed my hand over his lips as his laughter grew faint. We gazed at each other, and last night's conversation came to mind involuntarily. I wanted to just stand there and hug him and tell him I was sorry, but I couldn't.

"When the ship docks," I spoke up "I'm getting off with you."

His eyebrows raised quickly as he talked "This is crazy."

I laughed heartily "I know. It doesn't make any sense. That's why I trust it." My hand was clutching at the back of his neck, my fingers brushing the tips of his hair.

He looked down at my lips and then back up into my eyes before we both leaned in, kissing each other repeatedly with urgency, as if it was somehow the last time. It surprised me how every kiss with Leo seemed to be different, I didn't know he had it in him. My hands were still slung over his shoulders and I clutched onto him tightly. As our lips locked, his hands subconsciously slipped down from my waist, further down towards my butt.

"Leo hands up, buddy." Jim shouted into the megaphone with an amused tone. Leo's hand shot back up to my waist, but he started laughing into the kiss, which set me off laughing too and I broke off the kiss.

"Cut!" Jim barked, but in the same entertained tone. "I swear to god we can't film scenes anymore," I laughed. Leo pulled his hair back with both hands with a beautiful smile. "It's not so bad," he said.

There was a loud sound all the way at the bottom side of the ship, so me and Leo both walked over to one side of the deck, leaning far over to find the source of the problem, but there was nothing there. Leo was still leaning, scanning around the ground. I picked up a piece of ice from the ground that had just been wheeled in and stuck it down Leo's shirt. He screeched and tried pulling away from my grasp on his collar as the ice ran down his back. I cackled with pure joy, happy at how normal we were acting.

Leo got back up after the ice had fallen out from the bottom of his shirt and grabbed me suddenly, pretending to toss me over the side. "Alright, that's it, you're going overboard!" he joked as I flailed around in his arms. I hit him lightly on the shoulder and he put me down, still laughing, just as Jim called us down and we walked down to where his cameras and film crew were set up.

"You know, I saw Andrea take a bite right out of one of the blocks of ice the other day." Leo mused as we walked.

"That girl's a gem," I laughed. "She was talking about you the other day. Said she wanted you to take her to Disneyland so that she could show Cinderella how you 'hold hands'." I recalled, and Leo snorted with laughter, clutching his heart.

"Yeah well I'll have to take her then. Though I must be honest, she is a little young for me," he said jestingly, and I nudged him with a giggle. However my laughter faded down when we reached Jim and the crew, and I saw a certain familiar face standing around the cameras, who looked up with a beaming smile as we approached. It was Jake.