Let Me Know

Chapter Forty-Nine: SNL

Julia:

"Calm down, babe! You got this!" I keep reminding Lin as I fix his tie. "Are you sure? Do I look okay? Is my hai-" He rambles and I laugh.

"Lin-Manuel!" I raise an eyebrow playfully and he stops. He groans and looks at himself in the mirror, "Fine. I'm just nervous." He says.

"Nooooo, really?! I didn't notice it at all!" I say sarcastically and he chuckles, rolling his eyes. "Thank you." He wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to him. "For what?" I ask quietly.

"Just...for everything." He smiles, making me smile. "No, thank you. Now, let's get you on TV!" I exclaim and he laughs. I peck his lips and we leave the dressing room to go hand in hand backstage.

"Oh, hello again guys! Are you ready?" David, the guy who had called Lin the other day, said.

"Yes!" Lin said excitingly and I smiled.

"Perfect. Well then, wait here. When the drums start playing and you here your name being said, step onto the stage with this microphone. Good luck out there, man. You'll be great." David instructs as he pats Lin on the back.

"Alright, thanks!" Lin responds as we watch David leave to talk to a backstage manager.

"Well, babe, good luck. I'll be out in the front row cheering for you. You'll excel just like you always do. I love you." I say before we do our signature handshake before every performance.

"I love you too, baby!" He throws me a kiss as I walk down the backstage stairs. I find my seat in the audience and wait for the show to start.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Lin-Manuel Miranda!" The host says and the we all stand up, clapping and cheering. Lin enters through the main door as we all give him a forty second standing ovation.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you very much." He says as we start to quiet down. "I'm Lin-Manuel Miranda! It is so great to be here, New York City! I am fresh off a long run performing in my musical, Hamilton." He says and everyone starts to applaud once more.

"Which, fortunately, is one of the biggest hits ever on Broadway, so that means most of you watching at home have no idea who I am." He says and the audience starts to laugh.

"But if you get to New York, please come and see Hamilton. It's such a nice escape from all the craziness in our world right now. It's about two famous New York politicians locked in a dirty, ugly, mud-slinging political campaign—escapism!" We all start laughing one more time before he continues.

"Anyway, I can't believe I'm up here right now. When I was just a kid growing up in Washington Heights, I dreamed about standing right here on this stage. When I told people I was hosting SNL, they were all like, 'Well, are you gonna do a song from Hamilton?' I was like, "No! It's Saturday Night Live!" I wanna do all the SNL stuff. I wanna do all the stuff an SNL host gets to do, you know? It takes seven years to write a show, so I don't know when I'm gonna be back here!" He says and some of us laugh before he starts the song.

"So I am not throwing away my shot,
I am not throwing away my shot
My name is Lin-Manuel, I am hosting SNL
And I am not throwing away my shot!"

Then, he walks into the audience and we all start clapping according to the beat. He keeps rapping without missing a single beat, making sure to pronounce every word correctly and even making the audience laugh from time to time.

When he finishes, he sings "Savor it, own it, I swear to God, if I'm hostin', I'm makin' the most of this moment!" And they all go back to the upper stage with the backup dancers.

We all stand up again and cheer for him. When he goes backstage, I run towards him and engulf him in a hug. "That was so badass! You were amazing!" I compliment him and he laughs. "Thank you, love!" He kisses my lips.

We go back to his dressing room and he changes to his regular clothes and takes off the small amount of makeup that they had put on his face. After thanking everyone and meeting some fans outside, we decided to go out for some dessert.

"Now, which restaurant should we go to?" I question as I scam through the GPS and Lin tries to find good places around here. "How about Ice & Vice? It's the best place in New York." He raises both eyebrows and I chuckle.

"I've never been there, so I'm trusting that you're saying the truth." I joke and he gasps dramatically, holding a hand to his heart. "How dare you? You know for a fact that I know all of the dessert spots in the city!" He says, making me giggle.

"Alright, fine, fine, you win." I put my hands up in defense. "That's what I thought." He smiles, throwing his arm around my shoulder as we start walking to go to the restaurant.