13.5) Mid-February (Laundry Night 2)

Mackenzie yawned and stretched as she glanced away from the YouTube video she'd been watching. 10:43. She figured that was late enough to head down to the laundry room. The redhead rose from her desk, made her way over to the laundry bag, and... kept the dress she was wearing right where it was.

Having started her second semester with a fully stocked wardrobe again, Mackenzie was back to doing her laundry like a normal student. That being, she'd bring a full bag of dirty clothes down every couple weeks. Having so few clothes that she had to do her laundry literally twice a week was certainly something Mackenzie did not miss. (Not to mention often only having a towel to wear during the process!) Because of her frequent and barely decent laundry trips, Mackenzie had developed the habit of only doing her laundry very late on weeknights, so as to avoid as many people as possible. And she found no reason to break that habit now! So, at 10:44 on a Monday night, Mackenzie hefted her (blessedly full) laundry bag over her shoulder, preparing to head down to the dorm's basement.

"Gonna go do some laundry," she said to Willow, who seemed to be working on something academic-related for a change.

"Oh! Say hi to your laundry buddy for me," she teased.

She was referring to Peter, a boy Mackenzie had occasionally bumped into while doing laundry a few times now. Their first encounter, back in October, had been supremely embarrassing for Mackenzie, resulting in her being **** to sit naked next to him for the better part of an hour! Their next run-in, a week later, had mercifully been less humiliating for the redhead (although her towel did briefly fall off at one point while Peter had been in the room).

After a few more joint laundry sessions back in November, Mackenzie hadn't seen Peter for a while. Largely because she essentially stopped doing laundry altogether. By late November, Mackenzie had run out of clothes entirely, and was purely borrowing clothes from her friends to stay decent. And no more laundry nights meant she hadn't seen Peter for the rest of the semester.

So, it had been a pleasant surprise when, two weeks ago, she'd bumped into him in the laundry room. And for the first time, she'd been fully clothed in front of Peter while doing her laundry. It had made it a lot easier to simply let the time go by while they both waited in the laundry room. It turned out making small talk was infinitely easier when you weren't terrified that your boobs were going to slip into view at any given moment! (Who knew?)

"He's hardly my 'laundry buddy' Will," Mackenzie huffed. "We just both happen to like doing our laundry around the same time. We don't, like, coordinate it or anything. Hell, he might not even be there tonight."

"Riiight," the dirty blonde said, swiveling away from her laptop as if eager for the distraction. "You may not be coordinating it, but I bet you he sure as hell is. I can pretty much guarantee you that he'll show up again tonight."

"Whatever," Mackenzie muttered, trying to brush the comment off. It was hard to do, though, given that she'd also had the same thought Willow had just mentioned. Plus, it wasn't like Mackenzie was attempting to switch doing her laundry to another night either...

"Unless, of course," Willow said with a chuckle, "he's lost interest now that you're wearing actual clothes instead of just a tiny towel. Maybe he'll stop showing up now that his free little peep show's over!"

"Ugh, I'll be back in a while," Mackenzie said, trying to ignore her roommate's words. She slipped her sandals on and grabbed her phone before heading out the door.

She didn't think Willow was right about Peter not showing up again. It wasn't like he treated their handful of laundry nights together as a free chance for ogling Mackenzie, even when she's been clad in just a towel. Hell, he'd bent over backwards to look at her as little as possible when she'd actually been sitting next to him completely nude! But still, Mackenzie couldn't shake the nagging doubt creeping into her mind.

Would he show up tonight? She'd explained to him last time that her towel wearing laundry nights were over. So if he wasn't there tonight, then did that mean the only reason he'd been coming on those nights was to hang around her while she'd been barely decent? At the end of the day, the redhead supposed she just wasn't sure. But why did she even care that much anyway? She wasn't even really friends with Peter yet, despite getting to know him a bit better the other week...

One quick elevator trip later, Mackenzie emerged into the basement of the building. She slowly walked over to the laundry room, subconsciously holding her breath, and... the room was empty. No sign of Peter.

No sign of him YET, she reminded herself. The other couple times he had arrived after her, after all.

So, Mackenzie got to work actually doing her laundry. She popped open a washing machine and began dumping her dirty clothes into it. Her laundry bag soon followed suit and Mackenzie made sure to select the standard washing options on the machine. And just like that, the machine hummed to life, beginning its cycle.

Mackenzie casually walked over to the plastic bench and took a seat, glad she no longer had to feel the uncomfortable sensation of a towel not quite being long enough to fully cover her butt. And then... she waited.