5.5) Mid-October (Laundry Night)

Mackenzie yawned and gave a stretch as she glanced up from her homework, checking her phone. 10:57 PM. She sighed. The redhead figured it was late enough. Might as well get on with it. Mackenzie surreptitiously looked over her shoulder, trying to see what her roommate, Willow, was up to on the other side of the room. The dirty blonde was sitting at her own desk, headphones on, similarly engrossed in working on something, though it didn’t seem to be homework.

Trying to make as little noise as possible, Mackenzie stood up from her own desk and crept over to her laundry bag. With her back to Willow, she quickly and quietly tugged her shirt off and dropped it in the bag. Her pants soon followed, and Mackenzie’s fingers were already sliding into the waistband of her panties when her roommate spoke up.

“Going somewhere, sweet cheeks?” Willow teased, just as Mackenzie began sliding the underwear down and baring her curvy rear.

Mackenzie jumped slightly at her roommate’s sudden comment, but only paused for a moment before finishing undressing. It wasn’t like Willow hadn’t seen her naked quite a few times by that point, but was it so much to ask to get undressed just once without her roommate noticing?

“It’s that time again,” Mackenzie said, **** tinging her voice. She dropped the panties in the laundry bag and pulled the drawstring tight. Then, she reached for her towel, which was hanging nearby her absolutely empty closet.

“Laundry again already?” Willow asked.

“Mhm,” Mackenzie grumbled, wrapping the towel around her bare body. “Sticking to Monday and Thursday have seemed to work best so far. No one else has been down there the past two weeks.”

“It’s still crazy to me that you’re actually doing laundry twice a week,” Willow giggled.

“Well,” Mackenzie said, suppressing a snappy comment, “that’s what happens when you own next to no clothing, Willow.”

True enough, Mackenzie’s laundry bag was distressingly light. Mackenzie was still recovering from the theft of all of her clothes about a month prior. And the recovery process had only been complicated by the unlucky girl’s tendency to continue losing her clothes in the following weeks. By now, even if she washed every single bit of clothing she owned, it didn’t even amount to a full load of laundry.

“I don’t suppose,” Mackenzie asked, turning on her charm, “you’d be willing to lend me something to wear this time?”

“Hmmm…” Willow teased, pretending to be indecisive for a few long moments, before ultimately continuing, “…nahhh. I saw what happened to that dress you borrowed from Marianne a few weeks ago for one of your laundry nights.”

“That wasn’t my fault!” Mackenzie pouted. How was she supposed to know that one of the benches in the laundry room had so many ragged edges, eager to ensnare innocent clothing? “Besides, I gave it back!”

“Yeah, what was left of it!” Willow countered. “Besides, I like imagining you sitting down there in nothing but a towel anyway. Oh! Unless you’re planning on washing that too…” she added with a wink.

“N-No way!” Mackenzie stammered, instinctively making sure the fluffy white fabric was secured on her chest.

“I mean, you did just say yourself that no one else was there the past few weeks. As long as you’re not in clear view of the doorway, then you could totally sit down there in the buff for an hour or two!”

“The towel stays on,” Mackenzie authoritatively said, gathering up her keys and a book, “and that’s that.”

“Suit yourself,” Willow said as she watched her roommate grab the laundry bag and slip on her flip flops before striding toward the door. “See you in a few hours.”

Mackenzie grumbled a response and stepped out into the dorm hallway. With nothing but a bath towel on her body, the young woman took a deep breath and steeled herself for the journey ahead. The halls were mostly deserted, luckily, as most of the students had retired to their rooms for the night. Most of them… Mackenzie did turn a few heads as she passed the common room, where a few boys were playing a board game.

Next, she came to the stairwell, but continued past it. It was relatively narrow, and (as she’d learned the week prior) trying to squeeze past someone ascending the stairs made it far too easy for her towel to slip free. Instead, she waited for the elevator. It showed up mercifully empty, meaning even if she did get her towel caught on the rogue screw in the handrail again, at least no one would be around to see it (unlike the previous Thursday). As the doors closed, Mackenzie double checked that she wasn’t anywhere near the rail anyway. A few moments later, the doors opened with a DING! and Mackenzie arrived in the basement of the building. Just a few feet away was the laundry room.

Mackenzie took and held a deep breath as she walked over to the doorway. She had no way of seeing inside until she arrived at its threshold. She traversed the doorway and found the room to be… empty! The redhead let out a deep sigh of relief. Hopefully no one else would be coming down at 11 on a Monday night to do their laundry, giving her at least a bit of peace and solitude.

Mackenzie spent a few minutes placing her dirty clothes into the washing machine, then inverting the bag and throwing it in along with them (a habit instilled in her from her mother). After adding some detergent and adjusting the settings, the machine whirred to life. The display on the top of the machine read 00:45, letting her know how long the cycle would take. Mackenzie didn’t dare risk leaving her clothes and coming back when they were done. Knowing her luck, someone would sneak in and steal her last remaining clothes, leaving her without a stitch to her name! The beauty didn’t want to even think about that happening; it would be a nightmare come true!

With nothing to do but wait, the redhead settled down on one of the room’s benches, taking extra care to sit on the newer plastic one and not the treacherous wooden one. She couldn’t help but shiver as part of her bare thighs came into contact with the cold, smooth plastic. Mackenzie adjusted her towel yet again, making sure it was both in place and secure. It was large enough to run from the tops of her breasts all the way down to the tops of her thighs, but that was about all it was good for. Technically fully decent, yet one swift tug away from complete exposure. She tried not to focus on that thought.

Satisfied it was as good as it could get, Mackenzie opened her book. She got as comfortable as she could manage, and began reading The Tempest, which was the current assignment for her Literature class.