Try Me

37.

-everybody solid

I sat across from Jason with an obnoxious smile on my face, every date that we'd been on had turned out better than the last. I appreciated the way that we communicated with each other; neither of us had the desire to make small talk which always forced us to really talk to each other, we let each other into the deepest parts of our hearts and minds and something about that was so freeing. I finally met my match in life; an extension of myself, my heart in human form and I had accepted everything that came with him, he did the same with me.

"Are you ready to go home or do you want to go somewhere else?" Jason asked me, breaking the silence; we finished eating but I wasn't quite ready for the date to end. He stood and then held his hand out for me to take.

"Can we go for a walk or something?" I suggested, "I just feel like being with you." I shrugged as we left the private room and entered the elevator.

Jay pulled me in for a kiss and smiled against my lips. "Let's go then, we'll walk until your feet start to hurt." He smirked and we walked out of the restaurant.

I nodded and looped our arms together, we didn't talk much but we didn't need to; we never did. It was enough to be with him and feel the warmth radiating from his body, however I broke the silence after a while; I loved to ask him questions. "What would you say your biggest regret in life is?"

Jay blew out a breath at the question, "I didn't vote. Don't look at me like that!" He shielded himself from my slap. "I know, that's my biggest regret for real though."

I looked at him like I'd never seen him before, "You're voting this time though right? Like you registered and everything?" I asked him as we continued to walk down the deserted street. Neither of us talked about politics much but I usually urged the people that I knew to go out and vote, no matter what.

"Are you serious? Of course I did; I learned my fuckin' lesson with that shit. We've got a fuckin' psycho running the country now. No sir." Jay groaned and I shuddered at the thought of who was sitting in office. "I was one of those dumb ass people who thought that there was no way in hell that people would take him seriously. And unfortunately, not only did people take him seriously, but his words and actions made them feel okay about being full blown racists in public. We were at home taking him for a joke while his supporters were planning the new world order." It was crazy to think that way, though it seemed to be the general thought process with people who didn't vote.

"The girls and I practically ran to the polls; we supported Bernie, but even Hilary would've been better than this dickhead." I sighed as I thought back to election night. "I was depressed the next day; I thought that we would all be dead by now." I laughed humorlessly. "We're doing a discount at the store for registered voters and on the days after elections and we're doing even crazier discounts as long as people provide proof that they voted." It was sad but in the generation that we lived, in a lot of the younger people needed incentives in order to do the right thing. My best friends and I made it our mission to get young adults to their polling stations; it was important for everyone's voices to be heard.

"I might have to steal that idea for the barbershops, you know those guys don't vote." Jay chuckled lightly, "I felt like I couldn't complain either, because I squandered my opportunity to stop this from happening; I'm not saying that one vote could've made that much of a difference but I know that no one from my old neighborhood voted. Shit is crazy." It was the harsh reality of the last election; people didn't understand the power of their vote and how different the country could have been if they went out and used that power.

"That's the bystander effect you know? You see someone on the side of the road because their car broke down and you drive right by them because you think that someone else is going to help them. Sometimes we have to be the ones to step up so that we can influence others to do the same." I explained, I couldn't believe that we were seriously having a conversation about voting but I shouldn't have been surprised. "Especially people like us Jay, we have platforms and we can influence a lot of people through them."