Make him love me again (Love: stand back and standby)

Chapter 6

Annoyed, Chad looked at the screen of the voting machine. His hand hovered over the box with Trump's name in it. He heard her voice: 'Trump's a conman.' She'd sent him some links and, despite his anger, he couldn't resist reading them. He always thought the liberals exaggerated everything because they hated Trump. But those cages were real. They did separate kids from their parents. And those tax cuts he was so proud of? It didn't do him a whole lot of good, but it did help the already rich folks. Maybe the worst thing he read was about George Floyd. He'd heard he was a drug addict, high on Fentanyl while robbing a store or something. Chad wasn't someone who read the newspapers all day. He got his news from his friends, who he trusted. 'Damn it, Susan. What did you do?' Again he heard her voice: 'I hope you wake up before it's too late.' His hand went to the box with Biden's name in it, but he couldn't do that either, could he? His heart raced. He was in the voting booth way too long. His mask was itching. Something else she made him do. The Covid article she sent him was pretty scary and now he only went into a crowd with a mask. His eyes scanned the different choices, hoping for a sign. At last, he left everything blank and tapped the review button. A message came up asking him if he was sure. No, he fucking wasn't, but he clicked on the 'Yes' button anyway. He waited till the machine printed his ballot and, without reviewing the summary on the ballot, he touched the 'cast vote' button on the screen. Damn that woman to hell, messing up his head like that. With angry steps, he walked to the poll worker and accepted the "I voted" sticker, which he threw away as soon as he saw a trashcan. He wasted his vote and for what?