Oxygen || Leonardo DiCarpio

Chapter 1: Inside Joke

Originally Published: May 4, 2022

I was in heaven as I stepped on the Growing Pains set for the very first time. My mom had been able to secure us a role in the audience during a live taping. She also had convinced the people in charge to let me meet the cast.

"Wow...," I breathed, just running my fingers carefully over the arm of the couch I had watched for so long. This moment was especially important, since it was their rumored last season. I felt myself instantly becoming shy when Kirk Cameron glided onto the set.

"Hi, I'm Kirk. You must be, Everly," he warmly greeted, shaking my hand as I stared at him, speechless.

"Hi...," I trailed off, my cheeks heating up more when the rest of the characters entered.

"Hi! I'm Ashley. Are you here to watch our show," the one who played, Chrissy questioned.

"Yeah..." This little girl was more outgoing than me, and I could tell her personality in real life was mirrored on the show.

"I'm Alan Thicke," the t.v. dad greeted, me waving timidly as even the actress for Carol and the mom came in. I wasn't familiar with all of their names in real life. To be honest, I had only paid attention to Kirk Cameron, since he was my celebrity crush.

Just then the one who played Ben and one of the newest members hurried in, goofing off with each other.

"Okay, fine, you win. I won't put up this funny picture I drew of you," the blonde laughed, his voice almost cracking as he brushed his hair back with both hands.

The other guy, Ben, shook his head, before the jokester bounded up to me.

"Hey! I'm Leo. You must be the girl who's visiting the set today," he warmly greeted.

"Yeah, I'm Everly. I've been watching this show ever since season one."

"But this season's your favorite, right?" He bit his lower lip as he raised his eyebrows, causing me to almost giggle. His voice was still fairly high and he was only a few inches taller than me. I had no idea what his real age was, but I assumed he must be younger than me. I was 16 at the moment, but I had always looked young for my age. "You want to see the bedrooms? It's so weird how the set's set up."

"Okay," I agreed, loving how he was basically taking me on a personal tour.

"And this is the room I stay in. It's pretty girly, since it belonged to Carol before my character, Luke, moves in."

"Yeah, I've seen the recent episodes," I replied, touching the big stuffed dog that Ben always insisted on messing with, since his sister hated it.

"Yeah, I have a hair appointment like tomorrow. I like to keep my hair blonde, because it makes my blue eyes pop."

"That's why they're so blue," I softly said, but he heard me.

"Thanks," he lightly chuckled, me smiling a tiny bit.

"I dye my hair too, mostly with peroxide in the sun, because I hate having brown hair."

"We have something in common then. It goes good with your brown eyes."

"Thanks." I swore I was about to turn red, but I did my best not to crush on every single guy that was remotely nice to me.

"I think they're starting the episode soon, so you better get in the audience. You want to talk after?"

"Okay." I gave him my best, small smile before hurrying to my assigned seat.

The episode was better live than I could have imagined, my eyes transfixed on Leo for once instead of Kirk. Afterwards Leo came up to me and my mom with a dark blue duffel bag.