Perfect Collision by Lina Andersson Page A

forest. She had a light green dress with golden patterns and was holding a hand on a tree while she seemed to be on her way down into a stream. She was looking at something to her right, outside of the picture.
    “That's new,” Eliza said when she came in and noticed what he was looking at.
    “What story is it from?” He didn't recognize it, and he usually did.
    “One we came up with together about a princess. Her dad wants her to marry a prince, but she doesn't want to, because she thinks love is stupid and runs away. She crosses a river, and meets this guy and they fall in love. Then she finds out it's the prince!”
    “Nice.”
    “I know, I came up with it.”
    He chuckled since it was a very typical Eliza comment. He read the story she'd asked for, and she fell asleep while he was reading.
    Then he lay there, looking around her room at Vi's paintings. One of them was Eliza and Vi as fairies. It looked exactly like them, and he wondered how she could paint herself and not see how beautiful she was. With a sigh, he got out of Eliza's bed and snuck out of the room to find Mitch on the deck.
    “Where's Dad and Mel?” he asked, and Mitch rolled his eyes. He knew what that meant. “Fucking rabbits. Wanna head up to the river?”
    Mitch nodded as he stood up and put out his smoke in the ashtray. “I was gonna suggest it.”
    They made sure everything was locked up and the alarms turned on before they left. Their dad and Mel tended to not come back down once they'd gone to bed.
    Mac enjoyed the ride out to their spot. They'd gone there often. It started when they were kids, when either their dad, Bear, or both of them took them there. Once they got older, they caught a lift with anyone who had the time and spent the night alone. The last few years, they rode. Often taking long detours.
    Once the campfire was lit, they got down next to it, and Mitch handed him a joint. They lay in silence and watched the stars as they took the first drags.
    Mac needed to talk to someone, and Mitch was the natural choice. There was no one he trusted more. Mitch wouldn't tell anyone else, and he had a way of looking at things the opposite way of how Mac did. He needed that at the moment, since he was stuck in his own train of thought. He needed a different perspective.
    “I kissed Vi. About a month ago, when she did my ink.”
    Mitch looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Really?”
    “Yup.”
    “Was wondering what crawled up your ass. Since I haven't seen you with two black eyes, I'm guessing no one else knows.”
    “Not unless she told them.”
    “And she obviously didn't tell Bear.” He laughed and shook his head. “Shit, bro. Now what?”
    Mac sat up and leaned his elbows on his knees. “She's so much younger. She's... fuck! She's Bear's daughter and... it's not going to happen. I don't see how it could.”
    Mitch looked at him for a while, meeting his eyes and then he smiled. “You're a total goner.”
    He rubbed his hand over his face with a sigh. He already knew that.
    “Doesn't matter. It's not gonna happen. I can't do that. It would fuck up the club, I'd piss everyone off, and I can't fuck her up.”
    “Jesus, Mac! What is it with you and that head? Don't you think you're overthinking this a little? I mean, she'll be eighteen in... what? Just over a month? ” Mac nodded; he knew very well when Vi turned eighteen. Mitch continued. “She's not jailbait, and she's smart, calm, and all the shit you are, and I'm not. If it'd been me going after her, it sure as shit would piss people off, but not when it's you. You'd treat her right, and Bear would know that, too.”
    “Okay, maybe I'm overthinking a little, but you're not thinking enough. It's not that easy.”
    “I never think enough,” he smiled. “Is this about her crushing on you?”
    “Yeah. That too.”
    “So you think because she's been crushing on you, is younger, and very innocent—you'd be taking advantage of her?”
    “Something like that.”
    “That's