PERMANENT - Leonardo DiCaprio

Chapter 22 - Nel's Woes

Wednesday 7.30pm

The sun was already setting and descending under the sea by 7.30, meaning days were shorter, but it gave us an advantage as a lot of our scenes were filmed in the dark, so it gave us more shooting time.

I sat on one of the outside padded chairs on Leo's balcony with my feet propped up on the railing – we didn't have to be on set until midnight tonight. Leo was sat next to me a few feet away, once again smoking. The beach directly below us was still busy with people, and by now I recognised some of them. A lot of them were from our hotel that I occasionally saw at breakfast and others were locals that I had seen a couple of times when I'd explored the area.

"You wanna get food?" said Leo, lighting a fresh cigarette with his lighter, then inhaling it, squinting at the sunset.

"Urgh nooooo, I don't wanna go anywhere," I whined like a child shamelessly, but if I had to be up all night filming, I wasn't missing an opportunity to laze around.

He got up with an indistinct "Hold on," and walked inside, cigarette still smoking away in his hand. I scanned the polished glass table for my phone, but my eyes landed on Leo's pack of cigarettes that lay open beside the lighter. I deliberated it, then internally shrugged and slid out the slim stick from the packet. I popped it in my mouth and reached for the lighter, holding it to the end of the cigarette, and it lit almost immediately as I took a long drag. It burned a little going down my throat, but it was nice – calming in a way. I hadn't smoked since I was 18, when I smoked often, but it felt good, although I hoped I didn't make a habit of it.

"Right, what are we having then?" Leo said as he entered the balcony, waving a slim leather book in his hand.

"What do we have here?" I asked curiously. He placed the book on the table, and upon closer inspection I realised it wasn't a book, but the hotel menu.

"Room service," he said proudly, then looked at the cigarette in my hand and he frowned. "What...?" he pointed to it.

"Yeah don't ask. Just felt like it." He looked mildly impressed, hinting a smile as he sat back down.

"What, you taking after me now?" he teased with a smug grin as he leaned back in his chair looking at me, flicking the end of his cig. 

"So cocky, I love it." I retorted sarcastically. I exhaled a faint laugh through my nose and picked up the menu, scanning through all the options with slight difficulty, the ever growing darkness surrounding us as the sun set further and further, making it harder to read.

"So....I talked to the producers today- you know, Jim and Jon and all that lot." He started.

"Yeah?" I replied, encouraging him to go on without looking up from the menu. Their food options were grand, if not a bit pretentious.

"I'm leaving tomorrow." He said gravely. I turned to look at him sharply, lowering my feet down from the balcony railing and placing them on the ground and dropping my cigarette on the ground simultaneously (unintentionally).

"What?!" I screeched, my mouth hanging agape with shock. "Is this about what you said last night? About it being too much for you? Because you know that's not true, you know you're perfect in this role, I mean you've already done most of the film it's not like you can drop out now." I rambled at a fast pace.

"No no it's not that. They just told me they had all the footage they need from me, so it's just tonight's shoot and that's it."

He contemplated "Our last shoot." I was in shock – I wanted to cry. It would be so weird not seeing him every day.

"Isn't it.....a bit sudden? Like, that's it? No warning or anything?" I asked.

"I did get a warning Nel, today." He laughed "Technically it makes sense though, you have more screen time than me, you know, after Jack dies Rose still has those scenes on the Carpathia, and then you need to do that photoshoot for Rose's photographs."

I couldn't say anything else – I was overcome with extreme melancholy and gloom, so I stood up and strode over to Leo's chair, curling myself down next to him as he put his arm around me.

"And you can't stay? Come to set or anything?" I asked quietly, but with a hint of desperation.

"I don't think so. They'll stop paying for the hotel tomorrow and all the food, so it'll be coming straight from my own pocket-"

I snorted, interrupting him "Yeah as if that's a problem."

"Plus my mom said she was down in San Francisco so she asked me to visit her as soon as I could. It would let me have a moment of peace, you know, get myself together before the film premieres and we're back to hectic schedules, flying around the world doing promos for the film." I listened to what he said, and it made sense. It made perfect sense, so there was really nothing I could do – he was right.

I didn't say anything though because I was too miserable to actually agree, but he knew I understood. He popped his cigarette out of his mouth, giving it to me as a replacement for my dropped one than now lay extinguished on the floor. I looked at it, then slowly took it, inhaling it deeply. We sat in silence, my head resting against his chest, rising up and down as he breathed, just watching the waves. It was all starting to change now.