PERMANENT - Leonardo DiCaprio

Chapter 29 - Under the Influence

Thursday 9.47pm (6 days later)

I rifled through my clothes strewn across my bedroom floor, trying to figure out which ones I needed to pack for the promo tour. I had planned to arrange clothes in organised neat piles, but that plan went to shit very fast, as I now had one pig big messy pile in the middle of my room.

I heard a buzz at my door, so I briskly walked out of my room into the open plan living room and across to the speaker situated next to my front door.

"Yes?" I asked into the speaker as I simultaneously pushed on the button.

"Let me up," I heard Leo's voice on the receiver, and the sound of rustling. "Alright, come on through." I unlocked my door and walked back to my room, in a panicked state – as much as I loved spending time with him, he should know that tonight, of all nights, is not time for chit chat when our flight was at 9am and at 9.50pm the night before, my bags weren't packed.

I heard the door swing open shortly after, and so I exited my room to greet him in the living room. He was standing there, a plastic bag in his hand, proudly in the middle of the room with the biggest smile on his face.

I couldn't help but smile myself, he had the most contagious smile. "What's this?" I asked, pointing to the bag. He reached into it and started pulling out a variety of bottles of alcohol – wine mostly.

He started explaining "So I've had all these for a while and I thought 'hey what the hell I'm not gonna drink these myself' so I came over here," I stared at him expectantly.

".....and we're gonna drink them." he finished with a mischievous smile.

"Are you crazy? Leo are you out of your mind? We have to leave tomorrow, I haven't packed, and you are free to check the state of my room for proof," he wiggled his eyebrows up and down at this "and all that alcohol is guaranteed to put us in the hospital if we drink it all in one go."

Leo didn't seemed to care, even though he heard what I said, and with a smirk, plopped himself down on my couch, then looked back up at me with that same smirk. His arms were crossed in front of his chest as he put his feet up on my coffee table and spoke up "Nel, how often do we have down time? We're either away, or in an unfamiliar place, right? We never have nights like this anymore, at your apartment, some alcohol and just like-" he searched for the right word in his head "It's just us you know." A smile crept back to my face, but I walked to him, swatting his feet down from my table.

"Just because I let you stay does not mean you win." I said, as I pointed at him sternly with my finger and turned on my heel to the kitchen to get some glasses. I heard him shift in his seat and lift down his feet. One thing I loved and loathed about Leo was that he was extremely persuasive, and he didn't even have to say much.

//

It was around 2am and, of course, as is the norm when it comes to Leo, I was laughing hysterically, uncontrollably, and tears were coming out of my eyes as I had one hand clutching my stomach, and the other clutching Leo for support. He too was laughing, but continued on, doing his impression of his friend Kevin (Connolly).

2 bottles of wine and 1 shot each down, we had no plans of slowing down, and I kind of hated myself inside for agreeing to it, but I was too drunk to really care, or do anything about it.

"Hold on," Leo slurred as he pushed himself up using my shoulder for support "I gotta use the bathroom before I piss all over myself." For no apparent reason, this made me laugh even harder, and I doubled over on the floor, now lying face down on my floor. I heard Leo audibly carry on laughing as he made his way down to the bathroom.

A couple of seconds after the laughter had died down, I clambered over to my kitchen to put the empty glasses into the sink and wash them, as we were moving on to smaller bottles.

As the empty glasses clinked loudly in the sink, I stared to wash them, and stared, and for some reason my thoughts were racing, almost like an epiphany, but not quite. I had a lot of money now, but I was still living in the same small apartment that I got when I first moved. I hadn't had much time to think about it because I had hardly been at my apartment, but it was something I had to consider. It was small, but it was enough for just me. Aaliyah, however, her apartment was too big for her to upkeep. If I could convince her to move down here to Santa Monica, maybe we could buy a big apartment for the both of us, and she could look after it while I was away.

I felt a touch on the lower half of my back, and it pulled me out of my thoughts (I hoped I remembered everything when I sobered up).

"Hey," Leo whispered loudly behind me, his chin coming to rest on my shoulder. My stomach (or maybe it was my heart, who knows) dropped, and I dropped one of the glasses I was washing down into the soapy water.

"You're back," I said, glancing at him quickly. His hand was still on the small of my back, and he was trailing his fingers over my skin.

"I am." He hummed in my ear, grazing his lips over my ear, and his hot breath tickling my cheek. I swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to not drop anything else. His fingers were now inching up slowly, under my shirt and up my back. I exhaled shakily as he whispered again.

"Come back soon okay, I'll open up another bottle." His warm fingers squeezed my waist under my shirt, and sauntered off, leaving me somewhat shaken, and my heart racing. I finished the glasses I was washing (it took me 5 minutes to wash that one glass) and turned the water off, drying my hands.

I strolled slowly over to the living room, a smile on my face before I even entered, but when I entered the doorway my smile faltered as I took in the sight in front of me. Leo was passed out on the floor, the bottle he was going to open still laying in his arms unopened.

A light smile came back to my lips as I walked over to him slowly, taking the alcohol from his hands and putting it on the table. I went back into my room to fetch a blanket, and put in on him as he slept – he didn't move once.

Somehow in my drunken state, I set an alarm for 6am and went back to my own bed, falling asleep on my giant pile of clothes.