Ryan, her ex-boyfriend

"Ryan!" Mackenzie cried in surprise, a smile spreading across her face.

She'd been expecting him, but it was still a bit of a shock to see him in person again after so long. It had been about seven months since they'd last seen each other. In fact, it had been the day they'd broken up. Despite winding up naked in front of thousands of people at the State Fair, Mackenzie still felt like being broken up with was her worst memory of that day. It had happened on relatively good terms, and had been a mostly mutual breakup, but Mackenzie and Ryan fell completely out of touch during their fall semesters at different colleges.

In the past few months, the two former lovers had started talking to each other again, slowly working their way back to friendly terms. By the time March began, Mackenzie had been surprised to find that they were texting each other at least once a day! She was glad that they'd reached a point where they could be friends, of a sort. But she couldn't completely deny that part of her, deep down, still liked Ryan.

Mackenzie's love life during her freshman year had been rather... tumultuous. Corey had turned out to be a complete asshole. And Mason hadn't turned out to be much better. She'd had something with Aaron, at least, but it was... Well, Mackenzie wasn't exactly sure what it was. All in all, Mackenzie had not fared well in the love department so far since splitting with Ryan. So perhaps that was why a part of her felt like she was still interested in him.

"It's good to see you!" Mackenzie said, beaming.

"It's great to see you too, Mackenzie," Ryan replied, returning the smile as well.

The two of them awkwardly stuttered and danced their way into an even more awkward looking hug.

"Who the hell brings their ex on vacation?" Willow whispered to Marianne as they watched the two exes embrace.

"Well, she did say that they're back to being friends again," Marianne replied with a shrug, though she couldn't help but agree with Willow's point. "And I think her other friends from high school all already had spring break plans."

"Eh, still just feels weird to me," Willow muttered, switching back to a polite smile as the two disengaged from the hug.

"So what was that I heard about bras?" Ryan wryly said, causing Mackenzie to blush slightly.

"Uhhh, nothing! Don't worry about that," Mackenzie rambled before hastily switching topics. "Ryan, these are my friends Marianne and Willow!"

"Nice to meet both of you," he said with a small wave. The tall guy was wearing a simple long sleeve shirt and jeans, but he still looked just as good as Mackenzie remembered. "Sorry to crash the, uh, Girls Trip, but when Mackenzie offered a trip to New York I just couldn't turn her down."

"Not at all!" Marianne chimed in. "We're glad to have you come along. Right, Willow?"

"Mhm," she agreed after just a moment of hesitation.

"Well," Mackenzie said, "now that we're all here, let's get in line. It's looking pretty long by now..."

And she was quite right. The line to get through security had backed up a fair amount, even as they'd been waiting nearby. The four college freshmen all joined in and began the slow shuffle forwards with the rest of the long line of passengers. As they waited, Mackenzie and Ryan continued catching up.

"I can't thank you enough for inviting me, Mackenzie," Ryan emphatically said. "I've always wanted to visit, but I've never even come close to having the chance before."

"I know," she giggled. "You used to tell me about how you dreamed about living there someday, remember?"

"Oh, right. Yeah, of course I did..." he sheepishly said, rubbing his neck.

"Guess it was just your lucky day! Jess and her family went down to Florida for vacation, Lily's spring break isn't for another few weeks, and Amy has a marathon of partying lined up with her friends!"

"So I was just the lucky runner-up, huh? No complaints here!" he laughed.

"I figured as much," Mackenzie laughed a little too. "Though I... wasn't exactly sure how Katie would feel about you coming along."

"Katie?" Willow chimed in, turning around to actually pay attention to the conversation.

"My girlfriend," Ryan supplied. "And she's totally fine with it, don't worry."

Willow raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"You're going on vacation with your ex, not to mention two other lovely single ladies, and your girlfriend's just fine with that?" she asked, a bit incredulously.

"Yep," Ryan shrugged. "We trust each other completely. And she knows Mackenzie and I are just friends."

Mackenzie gave a small smile at that, genuinely glad to hear it.

"Uh huh," Willow skeptically continued. "And does she know about Mackenzie's tendency to nakedly throw herself at boys?"

"WILLOW!" Mackenzie shouted, attracting the attention of everyone else in line. She continued more quietly, but no less sternly, "I do NOT nakedly throw myself at boys!"

"Well, maybe not," Willow allowed. "But you do at least have a tendency for ending up naked quite a bit."

Mackenzie angrily blushed but said nothing. It was hard, even for her, to argue against that point.

"Katie's aware of Mackenzie's, uh..." Ryan paused, trying to think of how to phrase it. "Her, uh, special circumstances."

Mackenzie looked down at her shoes, feeling more humiliated by the second. She hated that everyone, even her friends, thought she was incapable of staying dressed. What she hated even more was the fact that sometimes they were proven right.

"That's, um, very trusting of her," Marianne acknowledged.

"She just made me promise that if any, uh, clothing incidents should occur on the trip, that I let her know about them. Oh, and that I not lend you any of my clothes, Mackenzie!" Ryan laughed with his last sentence. Willow and Marianne joined in, giggling slightly.

Mackenzie **** herself to give a half-hearted chuckle as well, but didn't look up from the floor. She felt mortified that her embarrassing problems actually required some sort of action plan between Ryan and his new girlfriend.

The next half hour passed by in a hazy blur for the redhead. The line of people slowly trudged forward. Ryan and the girls got to know each other a bit better, and seemed to be getting along well. At first, Mackenzie only chimed in for the occasional comment. What Ryan had said was getting to her, despite her best efforts to not let it.

But as time passed and the conversation continued, Mackenzie allowed herself to forget about those nagging worries. After all, she was about to go see New York City with three of her friends! This was going to be a dream vacation come true, and she'd be damned if she let her own wallowing ruin these potential memories.

By the time they'd finally approached the front of the line, Mackenzie was in relatively high spirits. She was excited to be here on this trip, and wasn't going to let anything ruin it for her!