9) Late November (Weekend After New Job)

Mackenzie groggily opened her eyes and rolled over in bed, checking her phone. 9:27 AM. She sighed and closed her eyes, hoping to perhaps fall asleep for a bit longer. But then the memories from yesterday began plaguing her mind, and she knew any further attempts at sleep would be futile. Instead, the redhead began browsing the internet on her phone, opting to stay in the comfort of her own bed for as long as possible.

Yesterday had been yet another humiliating disaster for the unlucky young woman. But this time, Mackenzie had truly hit a new low. It had been a Friday, so she began the day in a good enough mood. But after several bizarre incidents early in the day, Mackenzie had found herself once again sprinting back to her dorm room barely decent. And her day had only gotten worse from there!

Mackenzie had gotten dressed in her few remaining clothes and shown up for her third day of work at her new job at E'n'F Cafe (to finally earn a bit of money, given how broke she was). And for the third time, Mackenzie had found herself somehow stripped down while just trying to do her job. To make matters worse, this time she had wound up completely nude. And to further complicate things, her new boss had fired her towards the end of her shift (which, ironically, had nothing to do with her serving customers literally naked). So, after turning in her bright green visor and damaged apron, Mackenzie had had to endure another sprint back to her dorm, completely naked! Even for the eternally luckless Mackenzie, making two such treks in one day was quite rare.

But all of this would have at least been somewhat familiar territory for the redheaded beauty, had it not been for one simple fact. The clothes Mackenzie had lost that shift had been her very last ones. Her last shirt, gone. Her last pair of panties, kaput. Even her last pair of socks had been taken from her! Mackenzie had arrived back at her room au naturel, and for the second time in her life, she had nothing there to wear. The sole thing resting in Mackenzie's closet was a single bath towel.

Mackenzie glanced up from her phone, making sure her towel was still hanging where she'd left it. She sighed in relief upon seeing that it was still there, and hadn't magically disappeared in the night. She certainly wouldn't have called it clothing, per se, but having a towel to wear was a hell of a lot better than having nothing to wear, in her opinion. Mackenzie, like the very mattress she laid upon, was bare except for the heavy winter blanket she clutched to her chest. The thick fabric helped make sure Mackenzie made it through the cold nights just fine, despite sleeping in the buff every night. But it was far too big and cumbersome to actually try to "wear" anywhere. Mackenzie hadn't had the luxury of using bedsheets or pillowcases for quite a while, and she was beginning to get used to it.

After she'd made it back last night and donned the towel, a very angry Willow had begun to read Mackenzie the riot act. Luckily, she'd quickly been interrupted by a knock on the door. Unluckily, it had turned out to be their RA, Chris, requiring the two girls to come to an immediate mandatory floor-wide meeting. A good RA would have let her floor members know this well in advance, of course. But Chris was far from a good RA in everyone's mind. And so, for the third time somehow (out of only four meetings) Mackenzie had found herself attending a floor meeting in just a towel, with virtually all eyes on her. The meeting lasted for a full five minutes (an eternity by Chris's usual standards) before they'd all been allowed to disperse. In a bit of relative good luck, Mackenzie's towel had stayed in place the entire meeting (unlike the meeting three weeks prior).

But soon enough, it was just Mackenzie and Willow back in the room again. And Willow was still pissed. And perhaps rightfully so. Earlier in the week, Willow had expressly forbidden Mackenzie from borrowing any of her clothes. Over the past few months, while Mackenzie had been dealing with her wardrobe limitations, she had borrowed quite a few things to wear from Willow, who was more than happy to help. However, as more and more of the things Mackenzie borrowed wound up lost or destroyed, Willow's patience began to wear thin. And finally, she'd had enough. She stopped lending Mackenzie anything. And so, Mackenzie had relied more heavily on her friend Marianne, and occasionally on Marianne's roommate Ashley too. A similar pattern in ruined clothing was quickly reaching a similar conclusion, however. Marianne was now getting extremely to lend anything to the hapless redhead. So, when Mackenzie had had to report to work, she'd taken a few of Willow's things to wear against her wishes.

And so, last night, Willow's fury (which wasn't helped at all by the fact that the things Mackenzie had taken wound up being lost as well) had reached new heights. The livid girl swore she would never lend Mackenzie another thing as long as she lived. Mackenzie felt bad she'd inadvertently ruined so many of her friend's clothes, but she couldn't help but feel like Willow was missing the bigger issue. She had literally nothing left to wear! What was she supposed to do?

But ultimately, Willow had told Mackenzie that she was done, and that the redhead would be better off borrowing things from someone else. Mackenzie, also high tempered, had declared she didn't want any of Willow's clothes anyway. The two girls hadn't spoken for the rest of the night.

Only after the fight was over did Mackenzie learn that Marianne had gone home for the weekend. To make matters worse, Ashley hadn't responded to any of her texts, and possibly had gone home as well, so Mackenzie couldn't even get into Marianne's room! Asking for charity from other girls in the dorm would likely get Mackenzie nowhere. She'd tried before, on occasion, but all her fellow freshmen believed that Mackenzie was an exhibitionist, and that she pulled her streaking stunts on purpose. Word had spread that whatever you lent Mackenzie, you wouldn't ever get back. And asking any of the boys for help would likely get her nowhere.

And that's how Mackenzie found herself waking up on a Saturday morning with nothing to wear but a towel, and no idea what to do about it. So she just stayed in bed, aimlessly browsing the internet. Willow eventually woke up and slid out of her bed.

"Hey..." she said hesitantly, "about last night... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gotten so mad at you about it all."

"I'm sorry too," Mackenzie said, sitting up and holding the blanket over her chest. "You've helped me so much this semester, Will. That means the world to me."

"Aw..." Willow blushed.

"Does that mean... you'll let me borrow a few things again?" Mackenzie tentatively asked.

"I... I don't know Mack. You went behind my back and you've already ruined so many of my things... Let me think about it for a bit, okay?"

Mackenzie nodded, a slight hope kindling in her heart.

"Want to grab some breakfast?" Willow asked. The dining hall was only a few buildings away, and Mackenzie's meal plan meant she wouldn't go hungry.

"Um... I don't exactly want to walk around the dining hall in just a towel..."

"Oh, right. What if Marianne lends you something?"

"She went home for the weekend."

"Oh. How about Ashley?"

"She's not responding to me."

"Hm. Maybe Cindy?"

"Cindy?! She hates my guts! She still thinks I tried to steal her boyfriend back in October!"

"Oh right... To be fair, you did kind of pounce on top of him, all naked and stuff."

"I TRIPPED on my way back from the shower and fell on him ACCIDENTALLY." Mackenzie slowly said, as if for the hundredth time.

"Usually people wear towels when coming back from the showers," Willow chuckled.

"I told you! Somebody took mine and-" she stopped herself, not wanting to repeat her story yet again. "Forget it. Look, Will, if I can't borrow something of yours then I don't think I have any decent way out of this room. That's the bottom line."

The two girls fell into an awkward silence for a few moments, neither sure what to say.

"Bring me back something from the dining hall?" Mackenzie asked sheepishly.

"Can do," Willow smiled. She grabbed her things and left the room.

Mackenzie flopped back down on her bed. Things were looking up! Well, slightly. Sure, she was stuck in her room for the time being And, sure, she had less than three dollars left in her bank account. And, sure, she didn't have a stitch of clothing to her name. But she would soon have breakfast at least! And maybe, just maybe, Willow would be willing to lend her something to wear later in the day.

Mackenzie's thoughts were interrupted by a loud knock on the door. Perplexed, she got out of bed and quickly wrapped the towel around her body. Then, Mackenzie peered through the door's peephole.