Fire on Fire || Leonardo DiCaprio

Chapter 3: Grocery Store Mischief

I crossed the street the following day to find Leo mowing Nilah's lawn with a push mower. I bit my lower lip as I admired him in his stained, white muscle shirt. I froze when he lifted his gaze, feeling that he had caught me checking him out.

"Hey, I wondered when you would be coming over today," he faintly smirked after shutting off the machine.

"I'm sorry if you're busy with that. I can leave-"

"Nah, I only have this small area, and I should be done. Why don't you go on in? The air conditioner is on."

"Alright," I weakly smiled, entering the now comfortable house. When Leo showed up, I almost hyperventilated when I saw the part of his chest showing, slicked with sweat. His face was shiny as well, and his blue eyes popped out more against his fresh tan.

"Do you mind if I clean up first?"

"No, go ahead," I told him, my eyes stuck on his parting figure before he disappeared into the bathroom.

After around half an hour he had returned in clean clothes and damp hair. "I forgot that I was going to go with Nilah to the store today. She needs me with her, so we can pick out food I like."

"Oh okay, I'll just be going..."

"Wait." I stopped when his voice sounded behind me. "Why don't you come with us?"

I faced him with a shy smile as I nodded my head in agreement. "Okay."

Soon Leo and I were trailing behind his aunt as she pushed the cart. I was freezing as we maneuvered through the frozen food section. I noticed Leo take out a piece of paper from his pocket, admiring how his thumb bent backwards.

"My thumb can't do that," I spoke out loud, then thinking about how weird that probably sounded.

"Really? You must have the dominant gene then. Hitchhiker thumb is the recessive one," he explained properly before laughing quietly. "Sorry, I get all smart when I'm nerv-" He cleared his throat before leaving off the final word.

I admired how his blonde strands fell against his cheek as he lowered his head, completely focused on the list.

"Okay, so we need peaches," Leo told Nilah. "It's her list. I'm just holding it for her," he explained separately to me in hushed voice. He had no idea the amount of chills that rippled through my body whenever he did that.

"I can take the list if you kids want to look for things by yourself," Nilah offered.

"Alright. We can meet back here," Leo agreed, us gravitating to the chip aisle. "Fuck, chips are one of the best junk foods." He was grabbing a few different flavors causing me to stifle a smile. "Do you have a favorite kind?" He was holding up a large bag of potato chips with ridges.

"I love the cool ranch Doritos. I used to eat those every day from the vending machine my senior year. Actually they were amazing paired with Dr. Pepper."

"That does sound good. You don't drink diet soda, do you?" He grabbed a box of Dr. Pepper cans before chuckling softly. "I think we need a cart."

"I can go get us one," I piped up, hurrying to the main entrance. I used a free, disinfectant wipe on the straight bar used to steer the shopping cart before finding Leo again.

"I always get soda in a box if I'm getting it in cans. Those plastic rings hurt so many animals when they get thrown out."

"I've heard about that. It's really sad." I aided him in heaving the carbonated beverages into the metal cart.

"Yeah, I'm not crazy about how chips are packaged either. I want to try to change the packaging we use all over the world."

My eyes glittered as I gazed up at him, so in awe by his passion for protecting the environment. "You're amazing, you know that?" Oh shoot, I said that out loud.