PERMANENT - Leonardo DiCaprio

Chapter 41 - Make Yourself at Home

Sunday 2.37pm

"...we were 200 feet in the air, cabled on as it was completely, you know..." Leo demonstrated with his hand, searching his mind for the right words (he'd hardly had any sleep these past couple of days, and it was somewhat showing). "Vertical." I smiled, finding his attempts at explaining comical.

Malia, the interviewer, giggled and licked her plump lips, her warm cocoa skin glistening off of the carefully adjusted lights to compliment our faces just right. "Penelope, how did you handle those physically tough scenes?"

I thought about it for a second. I remembered filming them well, but all my filming memories were offset by Leo. I don't remember having any particular difficulties with filming simply because he was there with me.

"Say, for example, are you afraid of heights?" Malia said, prompting me with guidance toward an answer.

"Oh," I laughed. Of course the question was that simple, but there was me overthinking everything. "Heights have never been an issue for me. It really wasn't that bad, it was actually....pretty relaxing."

Malia laughed again "Relaxing? That's certainly one we haven't heard before!"

"Oh yeaaah," Leo butted in, dragging out his speech in realisation. "We would sometimes have to sit up there for hours, just overlooking the whole set as everyone worked below and just talk about everything." He looked to me with a little smirk, which I returned.

"And, Leo, what was your experience with Penelope Nava like?" Malia continued, reading off of the questions in her lap, a pretty smile still plastered on her face.

Leo looked to me again, shifting in his sit and sitting more upright "Well," he licked his lips and took a breath "We both respected each other so much from the get-go and I think the movie would have been twice as hard if it weren't for our mutual support of each other and the chemistry we had. We both truly like each other as human beings in real life. I think that always helps and it truly made it a lot easier."

Leo had a way with words that I didn't think anyone else had. He had a way of expressing things without giving too much away. Whereas me, I couldn't work my way through a sentence without stumbling, I didn't have the right things to say. Leo had grace in everything he did. How I ended up with a person so amazing was completely beyond me.

//

The engine of the car purred as I swivelled the steering wheel round the last turning, pulling up to my parents house and cutting the engine as we stopped.

"So this is where you grew up, huh?" Leo said, leaning forward over me with his hand supporting himself on my thigh, to look out of the car window on my side, up at my childhood home.

"Yep. Right here." I sighed, turning to face him. "Look I don't want this to be all.....'official'," I air quoted with my hands. "I know we haven't been together that long so I don't want you to feel-"

"Nel," Leo started "I would want to meet your parents anyway. We've been best friends for like a year." He  opened the car door on his side, as I followed suit, opening mine as I stepped out and he continued "Come on, I wouldn't have it any other way."

He came round the side of the car to where I was leaning, staring at the house, my eyes fixated on the light in the living room, dimmed by the closed curtains. I hoped that this time, I would not find a certain surprise visitor sitting on the couch.  Leo settled next to me, leaning against the car, as I was, and wrapped an arm around me, rubbing my arm up and down as I leaned into him. We stood there, both looking up at the house silently like an old married couple admiring their first bought house. A house they had shared memories in, had their children in, grown old in. Except we didn't have a house. We weren't old. We had our whole lives ahead of us, and maybe it was too early to think about our future together, but I hoped I didn't have to share it with anyone but him.

"Should we go?" He finally asked, cutting me off from my ridiculously lovey-dovey thoughts.

"Yeah, yeah." We pushed off from the car and set off for the front door, and I wasted no time ringing the doorbell, greeted by the faraway sound of Teddy's barking from the other side of the door. Leo's eyes lit up - I knew how much he liked dogs, or rather, animals in general.

The door opened and out stepped my mother with open arms, engulfing me in a hug straight away. "Honey it's so good to see you again." I let go of her, smiling "It's good to see you too." Her eyes fell  behind me to Leo, who was standing patiently with his hands behind his back. "And who is this?" She opened her arms out again as I moved to the side. "Oh yeah, mom this is-"

"No I'm just kidding, obviously I know who this is!" She hugged him tight, and me and him shared a smile as he looked over from over my mom's shoulder, still in an embrace. "Leo! Oh I can't believe you're here in our house, such a talented young man," She squealed as she released him. I sighed in embarrassment "Mom, please,"
"Pleasure to meet you. Heard a lot of good things." Leo replied, chuckling.

"Oh what a sweetheart," she cupped his cheek as she spoke. "Come on in, don't stand out here." She waved us in and we entered, Teddy jumping on his hind legs to greet me with excited licks as I stroked his heavy fur. Upon seeing Leo, he shifted his attention to him, wagging his tail gleefully and looking up at him expectingly.

I left Leo and Teddy in the hallway as I walked through to the kitchen, where I found my dad filling the kettle up at the sink.

"Hey dad," he turned around, shutting the water off and leaving the kettle on the side as he came over to hug me, placing a kiss on the top of my head.

"Hey love. Cup of tea?" I smiled but shook my head. "No I had like a ton of coffee after we finished the interviews today." My dad went back to the kettle, carrying it back to turn it on. "You fly out today right?" I nodded my head tiredly "Yeah we're only staying for a bit," "And where to?"

"Germany. For just under a week. Which is great because Leo's mom is from Germany- oh god I haven't even introduced you, come on." I headed for the living room to find my mom and Leo deep in conversation, sat on the couch as Teddy lay at Leo's feet on the floor.

"Leo," he turned around to us and stood up to greet my dad. I watched them from the doorway, hands clasped together as I watched the most important people in my life interact in such a loving way, as if they were family.