SHOUT - Adopted by Lin Manuel Miranda

HERE, STILL

I'm shaken out of sleep. I open my eyes to see Lin staring back. Outside, it's pitch black. The light in the hallway is all I can see by. "Lin?"

My voice comes out more like a yell. He squints and gives a closed-mouth smile. I come back to earth enough to see that he's sitting cross-legged on my bed with his hand behind his back. Outside the window, the bricks are gray-blue. I hear early morning traffic outside. I hear the heater behind the walls, the plumage rushing through the baseboards. I roll on my left side so I'm not facing him. "Insomnia isn't contagious, if that's what you were going for."

He puts his hand on my shoulder and rolls me back around. "Nope. Not trying to infect you."

The clock says 5:00 A.M. It's Saturday. If he thinks he's going to get me out of bed before 3:00 in the afternoon, he's got another thing coming. I decide not to cuss him out. I've been trying to be nice. "Get lost."

He doesn't move. I sit up and get in his face. "Get lost. Vamoose," I say, louder, this time.

He slowly pushes me back. "Oh, c'mon." He raises his eyebrows, suggestively. "I have a peace offering."

I lean forward on one arm. "I'm listening."

He pulls his phone out from behind his back and I let my posture fall.

"You woke me up. At 5:00. To cameo your asinine social media good morning post." I glare real hard so he can see my disapproval in the dark. "As a wise man once said: G'night."

He chuckles. "You're funny, kid. You're not far off, though." He grabs my chin and turns my head so I'm looking straight at him. "Look." He puts the phone in front of my face. The brightness makes something pulse in my eyes. "If we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it early so V doesn't know. She would sew my eyes and lips shut like the demented surgeon."

I grab the phone from him. The screen shows the cover of The Human Centipede on Itunes. "Shit," I whisper.

"Oh, yeah. Uh-huh. I went there." Lin flings the bed covers off me. "Get your butt in my office. I have two barf bags and a security blanket."

"For you, you mean." We both stand and I hand him back his phone. "I have an iron stomach. But good job trying to cover up your sissy side. You're catching on."

Lin wants to check on Sebastian before heading to his office. He's in a good mood this morning. He chuckles when Tobillo yawns in his sleep on the couch and grins over his shoulder as he turns Sebastian's doorknob. Early morning stripes of light filter through his window and create trapezoids on the rug. His bedroom in the dark looks like something out of a horror movie, with toys piled in heaps and trains with faces standing guard on his bureau. But there he is, sound asleep like the centerpiece of Tim Burton's infantry maquette. I can tell he's congested by the way he breathes, loud and nasal. Seeing him in his pajamas makes me wish night would stick around awhile longer. Dawn is a pleasant block of time. Anyone awake is either commuting midtown with an unhealthy dose of caffeine surging through their veins, or never went to bed in the first place. Lin goes to put his hand on Sebastian's forehead to check his temperature. I sit in the rocking chair and lean forward to make it creak. That ruins the moment.

Lin lifts one knee up on the bed and leans over Sebastian to part his bangs down the middle. Something in his stance is delicate, almost nervous. I count thirteen trains on the bureau next to me. I guess that's how Sebastian falls asleep so quickly: counting trains. Can he even count that high? Maybe he tries. Maybe it's the effort that makes him sleep so soundly.

I spoke too soon. A frightened, high-pitched scream rings through the room. "Get the fuck off me!"

Lin shuffles a few steps backward when Sebastian shoots up from his pillow with a face slick from nightmare sweat.