Page 2 of Oxygen Deprived

He had his shirt off, and his skin was bronzed from the summer sun.

“Your mother tells me you’re getting married,” the man said to his son.

“Yep,” he confirmed.

“Why?”

The teenager paused. “Because I love her, Dad.”

My heart thumped painfully, and I couldn’t help but look over at the three of them.

I must have made a small noise because the father’s eyes went to me, then back to his son.

“But why do you love her?” He asked.

The teenager paused.

“Because, I just do.”

“You should really have a better answer than that,” I blurted out, immediately clamping my hands over my mouth.

All three of them looked over to me.

“What?” The teenager asked shortly.

I dropped my hands and smiled weakly, suddenly feeling incredibly stupid for offering my two cents when it wasn’t asked for.

My mother was always getting on to me about that, too.

“Uhh,” I said.

“Go on, child. Tell him what you meant,” the father urged.

I bit my lip.

“It’s just…if you really love her, you should know why you love her. You should be able to say more than ‘because I just do.’ You should love her because she makes you feel happy. Because she makes you sleep well at night. Because she makes you laugh. Because when you see her, your heart starts to race. Things like that,” I informed him. “’I just do’ isn’t a good enough reason. “

He blinked, surprised at how well I’d answered him.

And the father smiled.

“What she said.”

“Well,” the teenager growled. “You can’t take a ten-year-old’s opinion for shit, Dad. They don’t know anything.”

My mouth dropped open in affront.

“That wasn’t called for,” I blurted.

My brother showed up at my side, pulling me away from the three of them.

“She’s sorry,” Downy apologized to them. “She doesn’t realize how nosy she really is.”

I snatched my hand away from my brother.

“Get off me, you infidel,” I ordered crossly.

Downy laughed in my face, then dropped me back off to my mother before returning to the field.