Sinner's Heist

"21

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀FORKS CLANKED AGAINST the plates, the shrieking noise was the only sound in the dining room. Melani picked her fork up towards her mouth, stuffing the cheesy lasagna deep into it. Her eyes glanced over at Amos who sat across from her at the table. His head was tilted downward underneath the table as he texted away on his phone. A smirk was glued to his face, unable to leave as the messages flowed in constantly from the same contact. He'd barely touched his food, only picking over it. It begin to grow cold as Melani crunched on her Caesar salad next. She shook her head at the young man, but was happy something held his attention with joy written over his face.

Kielce entered back into the kitchen, catching sight of his cousin as he carried his empty plate to the sink. He'd eaten his dinner in the bedroom, catching up on a football game highlight. He needed to know who were all in the playoffs to mentally mark off who wouldn't be going into the Super Bowl. Of course, the patriots were one-the team he hated almost as much as the cowboys. The falcons needed to do better! He'd wanted another year of celebrating his team success just as last year, but this year just not have seemed to be it for them. He chuckled as he paused his steps, saying, "Damn nigga, every time I'd come in here, your nose up in that phone. Tell me sumn'." He continued his footsteps and placed the plate down carefully into the sink then flipped the faucet on to wash the residue from off of it.

Amos rolled his tongue across his lips, locked the screen of his phone, and lifted his head up. He laid the device across his lap as he lifted his arms, stretching outward. The smirk wore off as he dropped his arms down heavily and breathed, "My bad. Lemme' warm this up, ian' tryna' waste yo' food like that." He stood to his feet, directing his words to Melani as she was nearly finished with her food- she'd always been a slow eater. Amos walked off to the microwave, sliding the plate inside and ripped off a paper towel from the roll to place over the food while it heated up. He shut the latched door close and punched in sixty seconds before pressing start. Kielce places the plate up in the cabinet after drying it off and leaned on his side against the counter. "Tell me sumn'." He repeated, curious to who or what had his attention.

Amos stuff his hands into his pockets and looked towards Melani. She met eyes with the two males before taking that as her cue and raised her hands in defense. "Men talk, okay. I'll excuse myself..from my own kitchen table." She joked, standing up and grabbing ahold of her plate and disappeared off to the back of the house. Once hearing the bedroom door shut, Amos adverted his eye contact to the microwave as it beeped ready. He opened it and retrieved his freshly warm food before opening up about his earlier encounter. "I'd met a lil' boo joint durin' my walk earlier. She'd gave me ha' number not long befo' you called about my whereabouts." He pushed his fork down by its side into the lasagna, cutting it into pieces before stabbing a piece and placing it into his mouth.

Kielce grinned hard as he held his hand out, wiggling his fingers outwards. Amos did the same before they shook hands tightly. Kielce chuckled and nodded, "But aye, that's real cool. About time you got out this house and got some fresh air. I know we ain't been the best of tour givers but you grown, you got that shit. But she must be bad, gotcha' all in ya' phone and shit." Kielce folded his arms tightly, intrigued on this mystery girl who was working her way into his cousin's main interest. Amos blew a piece to cool it and popped it into his mouth, chewing hard with his mouth closed. His lips motioned up and down fast as he nodded, his eyes easing closed. Once he chewed, she agreed by saying, "She bad, cous', I can't even lie. Her conversation not too bad either."

"What's her name?" Amos paused his eating from the question and looked upward. He furrowed his eyebrows before bursting into a short laugh. "Damn, I don't even know. For real." Kielce shocked that the conversing had been going well enough where they'd not even established each other's names. "Well shit. That'd probably be good to know, her name. When y'all meeting up?" As if on cue, Amos phone chimes of a new message notification from the table's chair. He walked over to it and sat his plate down for a moment, pressing the home button to unlock it as he said, "I'm honestly trying to see what's up with her tonight."