To a pet shop to return a Christmas present

"Here we are," Mason said after parking his car outside the strip mall. He turned to look at Jess and Mackenzie in the backseats of his car.

"A Pet's Market?" Jess asked. "I thought you said we were here to return a gift."

"We are," he replied. After fishing around in front of the passenger seat for a moment, Mason held up a leash and collar set, still in its packaging. "I bought it for my cousin, but apparently the dog I thought was 'her' dog was actually her boyfriend's dog. And they broke up a week before Christmas, so fuck me I guess!"

"Oh..." Jess awkwardly said, unsure what else to say.

"Yeah, it did not go over great when the family was exchanging gifts," Mason sighed. "Hence the return. Are we alllll ready to go in?"

He very pointedly looked at Mackenzie as he finished his sentence. The redhead, still quite naked, blushed a bit more fiercely.

"Do I really have to go in with you?" she asked, a defeated tone in her voice. "Isn't it enough that I vowed to spend the first 24 hours of the new year naked? Can't I just stay in the car this time?"

"If you want my help distracting your parents," Mason said, reiterating their earlier agreement, "then yes you have to come in with me!"

That option sent a different kind of nervousness racing through Mackenzie's body. Her parents were not big fans of her tendency to wind up naked in public. After all her embarrassing troubles in her senior year of high school, they'd **** her to seek therapy, assuming she was stripping herself for kicks. The only reason they'd relented recently was because they had Absolutely No Idea how often Mackenzie was still experiencing embarrassing incidents in her freshman year of college.

There was simply no way Mackenzie could just waltz home nude. Even if she explained herself and the ridiculous wager she was now subject to, it would reopen a whole can of worms that her parents currently thought closed and behind their daughter. And, since Mason was dead set on sticking around until midnight, Mackenzie needed his help in sneaking past her parents.

"Lets... just get this over with," she muttered, opening the car door.

"Well, hang on now," Mason said, catching Mackenzie with the door halfway open. The cold air rushed in over her bare skin, making her shiver. "If I could get some use out of this leash and collar, then I wouldn't need to return it, would I?"

"Huh?" the redhead asked with a shiver, not following.

"I'm saying," he emphasized, "that maybe we can make a little exception to our wager, Mackenzie. You could wear this today, and we wouldn't need to go into the store at all!"

Mackenzie glared at the man she'd found hot and charming a mere 12 hours ago, wondering how on earth she'd ever thought she was into him.

"I'd rather strut around a Pet's Market naked all day than wear that shit for the likes of you," she said, with exactly as much resent in her voice as she actually felt for the man effectively keeping her nude. And without a further word, she stepped out of his car. The blacktop felt cold on her bare feet, but Mackenzie locked her neutral expression in place, not wanting to give Mason the satisfaction of seeing her further discomfort. She kept her arms strategically placed over her breasts and crotch (a position she'd become distressingly familiar with adopting), but put on her best poker face to hide her embarrassment.

"Good for you," Jess said, adopting her familiar shielding position behind Mackenzie. "Seriously, fuck that asshole."

Mackenzie felt her confidence bolstered by her friend, even as she strode fully nude into the mostly deserted pet shop. She smiled at her best friend, and would have given her hand a squeeze had her own hands not been so preoccupied.

It ended up being a relatively short errand for the trio. Mason had the leash and collar returned in under ten minutes, and even better, there had hardly been any customers in the store. The only embarrassing hiccup was that one of those customers had been an acquaintance of Mackenzie's and Jess's from high school. It wasn't anyone they'd known particularly well, but it still had made it all the more embarrassing when she'd noted Mackenzie was "still doing the naked thing." Mackenzie was still ruminating on it when the three of them exited the store.
"It could've been worse," Jess noted as they stepped back onto the parking lot. With a blush, she said, "She could've brought up prom."

"Oh god," Mackenzie groaned. She tried to think about her absolutely mortifying prom night as little as possible. That had been one of the few occasions where she hadn't been the only one naked and humiliated in public. That time, all her friends had been in the same boat! "Don't remind me..."

"What's that about prom?" Mason asked from a few feet away.

"None of your business," Jess stated, not hiding her hostility towards the source of her friend's embarrassment. "Are we done yet? How many stops do we have left already?"

"You're in luck," he replied with a chuckle. "Just one stop left, then I'll help you sneak back home in whatever way I can."

Mackenzie allowed herself a small sigh of relief at that as she climbed back in the (relatively) warm confines of the car.

"Where next?" she asked, hoping it wouldn't be anywhere too crowded with people.

"Your good luck continues," Mason said, flashing her a smile as he climbed into the car as well. "It's right here in the same strip mall as a matter of fact! So we don't even need to drive anywhere else."