9 Days Before [2nd Draft]

The Seventh Night

Lin rustles downstairs from being called for dinner, meeting him is his mother setting down plates—steam rising off of the delicious meal, the smell brings Lin a welcoming warm flame inside his chest—its scent sizzled with a pull of smooth natural elements.

He inhales deeply trying to pictate the meal, "what's for dinner?" He says giving up the guess.

"Glazed Steak with some smashed potatoes that have corn mixed into it." His mother says while serving his plate on the table, Lin sits down—stoked about the meal that lays ahead of him, the lifting steam of the food warms his face.

Lin's Mother leans over the table to switch on a portable radio to play soothing music while they eat, they pick up their silver forks—Lin stabs into the cut steak pieces, its glazed coat gleams on the overheard light. His taste buds burst as he brought it towards his mouth, "wow, this is really good mom." he muffles, tasting rich goodness as he chows down on the piece of steak.
His mother smiles, "I'm glad you like it." She places her fork into her piece and begins eating as well. As Lin chews, he takes a look around the table while tapping his foot to the gentle beat of the radio.

"Hey, mom."

"Hey what?" She says looking up at Lin—still chewing on her piece, a small set of flowers sits in-between them.

"Where's Rin?" He jabs his fork into another piece as he stares at the spot where Rin would be sitting at the dinner table. "She's staying at a friend's house for a few days." The radio cuts out for a split second, his mother chewing on a new piece as she stares at Lin.

He does a simple nod, pressing his upper lip up and they go back to enjoying their meal together.

Lin thinks about what his mother told him, trying to picture what friend of Rins' is she staying at—maybe a friend that has yet to be introduced?
His mother, capturing Lin staring at the kitchen table as he ponders the question, "what's up?" She pokes at another piece of meat, taking a glance up at him for an answer.

"Nothing, just daydreaming." He doesn't want to bring up the friend, believing that they've already been introduced to them and he just forgot, evolving it so he doesn't look like a jerk for not remembering—with the same feeling of yesterday raises, making him burrow his brow.

Radio gets interrupted then goes back.

Lin does a soft sigh and focuses on finishing his meal, carrying onto the mash potatoes.

The two sit silently listening to the radio as they eat their meal, his mother occasionally leaning on her elbow—looking up at the ceiling deep in her own thoughts about work.

Lin quickly polishes off his mashed potatoes, grabbing his plate, "thank you for making us dinner mom." He shifts up out of his chair to carry the dish to the sink to clean it off, "finished already?" His mother looked at the back of him, seeing him clean his plate and silver-wear.
"Yep, it was delicious!" He responds, finishing his cleaning—placing the cleaned dishes onto a drying mat and he takes off upstairs and into his room.

His mother sits there alone, finishing her own meal—after a moment she blankly looks at the radio as it starts to erupt a jitter of static noise.

Upstairs, Lin flops onto his bed after turning on his gaming station and television. He grabs the controller that's laying next to him where he had left it—a faint static line floats up the T.V screen causing him to get up from his bed to give it a bump on the side having the line disperse.

He turns back to the bed to crawl back into it, seeing his phone light up with the phone logo teeter-tottering back-n-forth.
"Kel?" He looks at the screen with a faint burn to his chest, debating whether to answer or leave it ringing.