Thursday afternoon I was sitting on a bench in front of the school waiting for Lin to pick me up. APUSH was stressful today. We were going to see Hamilton at the end of the month, and I was supposed to be writing a speech.
I mean, one person from each school was chosen to answer "what does Hamilton mean to you?" And for the life of me, I couldn't answer it. I just couldn't do it.
I mean, somewhere in me, I knew the answer, but I could explain it.
As I was lost in my thoughts, I heard a horn honk, drawing me out of my trance. Lin was sitting in his car, waiting for me to notice him. I grabbed my bag and ran toward the car, and got in.
"Sorry I'm late." He said, as I closed the door behind me.
"It's fine." I replied, putting my bag on the floor by my feet.
"So, how was school?" He asked.
"Fine, I have to write a speech for APUSH."
"Ah, I might be able to help you on that one, what about?" He questioned.
"You." I laughed a little.
"Oh, so you're giving the Hamilton speech? At Eduham?"
"Yep." I smiled a bit.
"Well, that shouldn't be that hard, right?" He looked at me.
"Actually, it's kind of hard." I confessed.
"Really? How so?" He asked, turning into the parking lot of our apartment building.
"I don't know. I just can't really seem to get anything on paper." I admitted.
"Well, let me see what you have." He offered, parking. As the car stopped, I reached down and grabbed my bag away from him.
"Hey! Sorry! I won't look, promise, didn't think it was that big of a deal." He held his hands up in surrender.
"Sorry," I hugged my bag close to me, stepping out of the car. "I mean, the speech is for you. You can't help write it."
"Alright, I see where your coming from." He allowed, walking towards the building, with me trailing behind him.
•••
So, a couple hours later I heard a knock on my door. I sighed and got up, it was 6:00, meaning the 8:00 show should start in 2 hours. I trudged over to the door to find a very excited Lin.
"Why are you so excited?" I asked, swinging my purse over my left shoulder. "I mean I get it, your loving the dream, but don't you ever get tired?" I asked.
"I've been asking him that for years!" I heard Vanessa yell from the living room.
"And I do get tired, I drink like 4 cups of coffee daily." He reminded.
"That cannot be healthy." I shook my head.
"Oh it isn't." He said yawning, "but at least I don't drink four cans of Red-bull daily."
"Yeah! He only drinks 3." Vanessa added, again.
"You shut your mouth missy." He ran into the living room, and I followed, Vanessa was just cracking up.
"It's honestly a miracle he's alive at this point, he is fully fueled by caffeine." She laughed out.
"I mean, she's not lying." I was leaning in the doorway, watching this all happen.
"Alright, alright! I surrender!" He put his hands up in surrender, as he did this, he looked at his watch. "Oh, crap, we should go." He said.
"Alright." Vanessa said, getting up off the couch, grabbing her purse.
"Oh. Are you coming?" I asked.
"You didn't tell her?" Vanessa asked.
"Oh. I didn't. Sorry." He responded. "We're not going to the show." He told me. "We're going to dinner, then, we're going to see Waitress."
"Really?" I brightened up quickly.
"Yeah, I mean, I was thinking about what you said, you've never seen a Broadway show that wasn't mine, and I guess, I can take a day off."
"Oh my gosh! Thank you!" I ran up to him and hugged him.
"You're welcome." He replied, laughing a little, returning the hug. "We should go though." He admitted.
"Oh, ok." I said, letting go.
We got to dinner at about 6:30, and at this point, I was decently stressed out. I mean, I ate a full lunch today, and was already beating myself up over that. I couldn't have a second meal, one was bad enough. Also, it's not like I really need food. They say that your body can use the fat stored up as nutrients when you aren't eating. And judging by the amount of fat I had, I could survive for a pretty long time without eating.
Lin and Vanessa were talking about some rapper, and I was sitting at the table, staring at my lap. I hated it. I hated sitting, I swear my thighs were huge, and whenever I sat I could see that. I hated that. I hated that about me. I was fat, and I couldn't stand it. As I was lost in this little analysis, I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Abigail, what do you want?" Lin asked, motioning towards that waiter, who I just now noticed is at our table.
"Oh! Sorry, um, I'm ok, thanks." I smiled at the waiter who started to walk away, and I looked back down at my lap.
"It's ok. Let it go, she'll be ok, just, not now." I looked up a little, Lin had his head in his hands, and Vanessa was whispering that to him. A pang of guilt shot through me, and I reached for the soda, I had previously ordered.
"Go on, it's fine." I looked up to see a mom, trying to convince her kid to ask Lin for an autograph. The kid obviously wanted one, but he was way too shy to talk to Lin, who was currently informing his wife about the Chuggington episode he and Sebastian had watched that morning.
"No, he's with his family." I heard him whisper back to his mom, and he started to walk away. I looked back at the kid and he was wearing an I Heart NY t-shirt, which generally means he was a tourist. Also, he was 8 or 9, the mom seemed upset too, but she didn't want to make her son uncomfortable, so she started walking back to her table with him.
"Hey." I said, standing up, and going over to the kid.
"Hi." He replied, and his face lit up, as did mine, this kid was too cute.
"Whats your name?" I asked, squatting down in front of him.
"I'm Liam, and you're Abigail." He replied.
"That's right." I grinned, "how do you know my name?" I asked.
"I'm a really big Hamilton fan." He said shyly.
"You are?!" I asked, feigning surprise, and he nodded, "well, do you know who Lin-Manuel Miranda is?" I asked, and he nodded furiously. "He's right over there," I pointed back at my table. "Do you want to meet him?" I asked, and Liam's face just lit up and he nodded really quickly. "Ok, follow me." I took Liam's hand and walked back to our table, with his mom following us.
"Are you sure he won't mind?" Liam asked, shyly, as we got to the table.
"Of course not!" I reassured him, and tapped Lin on the shoulder to get his attention, he turned around.
"Yeah Niñita?"
"So, um, Lin, this is Liam, and he's a really big fan," I started, looking down at Liam, who was pretty much hiding behind my leg, and then at Lin, who was beaming and trying to smile at Liam. "Go on Liam." I said, nudging him forward.
"Hi." He said, looking at the ground.
"Hi Liam." Lin said.
"Can you sign my t-shirt?" Liam asked, not taking his eyes off of the ground.
"Sure!" Lin said, grabbing a sharpie out of his back pocket. "Come here." He patted his lap, and Liam's mom, lifted him up and sat him down. Lin signed the back of his shirt, and the mom got a picture of Liam on Lin's lap.
"Thank you!" Liam said, hopping down, off of Lins lap.
"Anytime." He responded.
"Thanks." Liam's mom said to me, putting her hand on my shoulder.
"Oh, no problem." I replied with a smile.
Sooner or later Lin and Vanessa's food came. Lin was managing to hold all of our attention with a story about him playing Zelda, which was, in a word, miraculous. Vanessa was enthralled, me, not so much. I mean I wasn't bored, Lin's just really nerdy and it funny.
"Niñita do you want some chicken?" Lin asked.
"No, I'm fine." I replied.
"Ok, well, I know you want the chicken and I am the father of a very young child, therefore I know how to force a child to eat, via turning kitchen utensils into airplanes, and I don't think you want me to do that in public. To my teenager." I rolled my eyes, and, using my own fork, I took a bite of his chicken. It was very good.
•••
After dinner we went to see Waitress. It was actually really amazing, not really what I expected, but oh my gosh Jessie Mueller was phenomenal, both her singing and her acting. Just over the top, insanely talented. She was also incredibly sweet.
Oh yeah, I got to go backstage! Apparently, people wanted Lin to go backstage and I got to go too. The entire cast was so nice, and talented, all around a great night, and something I'll remember for my entire life.
•••
I'm not doing questions today, partially because this is already late and I have a lot of crap to do today. All questions for Nick, Luke, Abigail's friends, Mr and Mrs Walter and the misc. category are still open!
Thanks for reading!
- Abi