"Nearly at the top of the mountain, heaviest gear you've got!" The fitness instructor stated through her microphone.

Mackenzie's legs were tired but she was ready to push through. She was so close to the end. Her frustrations would be taken out on having to push through just a little harder.

She pushed the bike's gear to its maximum and jumped out of the bike seat. Pushing the pedals was hard when it felt like they weighed a tonne.

Thud, thud, thud.

"We've reached the peak! Now to finish it off - thirty seconds down the mountain. Reduce gear and run. RUN!" The instructor shouted and Mack did what she was told.

She reduced the gear and span the pedals as fast as she could. She grew tired but before she knew it the instructor slowed her own pedals and softly stated 'done' to the class.

"Okay. Come off the bikes and start your stretches. We'll start with the quads." The fitness instructor instructed.

Mack jumped off the stationary bike and picked up a leg. She wasn't expecting conversation from her right. But after accidentally dropping her dilemma onto her spin class acquaintance before class began she should have expected the conversation.

"Seriously Mack. Forget that guy. You're out of his league if he previously was screwing disgusting women who have popped out kids. Think of the ruined bodies. Ew!" Mary-Ann screeched.

Mary-Ann was a regular in Mack's spin classes. Mack knew she was unmarried and thirty-nine, because Mary-Ann said this to Mack at every opportunity she got. But although the older woman was self-obsessed, Mack also found her inspiring. Her dedication to fitness motivated Mack, but also Mary-Ann's career was also interesting. Mary-Ann was a high powered business executive. Therefore Mack didn't mind the idle chit-chat before each class.

Knowing Mary-Ann's stance on children and pregnancy also made her the perfect person to unleash her current dilemma on. That her boyfriend, David, had been neglecting to tell Mack about the child in his life until Steve Haines dropped the bombshell.

Mack and David were now on shaky ground. After Steve had divulged in David's secret that night, Mack didn't want to be around Haines anymore and turned down his offer for a ride home. Instead she got the next cab alone and went straight home. Unfortunately for her David got his own cab and followed her home. She wasn't impressed that he turned up unannounced and clearly unwanted but she invited him inside for a cup of tea to hear his side of the story.

Ever since then, she had dodged his calls and ignored his requests to spend time together. She needed to get her thoughts together to decide how to move forward.

"I know! That's the thing. I take pride in that I've decided to wait to build a career before having kids. I thought that made me blue-chip stock. But knowing my boyfriend has been with women who haven't made the same great life choices. I dunno. I feel weird. Is the issue that I'm not as good as I think I am, or is the issue that he has previously had low standards?" Mack explained to Mary-Ann, letting it all out.

Mary-Ann put a hand on Mack's shoulder out of sympathy.

"Trust me, kid. It's him. All him. Some guys like loose whores who don't treat their body as a temple and think spewing something out of their bodies is a good idea. If I were you I'd get rid of him." Mary stated but immediately removed her hand "Anyway, I gotta run. I have a meeting with HR this morning. Can you believe some guy I work with has accused me of stalking him?"

Mack weakly smiled before bidding Mary-Ann goodbye. She felt a bit better after talking to Mary-Ann, especially as Mary-Ann had been telling Mack exactly what she wanted to hear. It was rare for the older woman to not be going on and on angrily about her own life, she normally never cared to hear about Mack's life. But it had gone in Mack's favour today.

Mack finished wiping her bike down before she rushed to her car. She was in a rush herself – she had class and still had to go home, shower and then get the bus to campus. It was much easier to get the bus to her university than it was to spend a long time finding expensive and restricted parking nearby.

She began to drive through Rockford Hills peacefully. The sun had been up for an hour or so, it was now fairly light outside. But as it was still fairly early (quarter to seven) the back roads were quiet and free from traffic.

She chuckled to herself as she drove past a park and saw a man in his underwear throwing up. This would be a common sight in downtown Los Santos – or even South Los Santos. However the scene stuck out in upper class Rockford Hills which Mack considered a shame as it was quite entertaining. She made sure to take a long peek at the man.

"Holy shit!" Mack exclaimed to herself as she got closer to the park and could see who exactly the person was who was stuck in their underwear.

She didn't hesitate to drive to the park and pull over. The male had not yet seen her and was still groggy from the substance he had taken the night before. Mack wasn't sure what had happened but had a good inkling and not wanting to startle the male she revved her engine to get his attention instead of honking the horn.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm wandering around in my underwear. Move along." Michael grumbled angrily not bothering to focus on the car as he made an angry hand gesture.

"If I move along you'll lose your ride to your house. Do you really want me to go?" Mack sympathetically offered.

Michael looked up and saw the pretty girl give him a weak smile. He felt as if a fog lifted and everything had become clear. If anyone else stopped and saw him in that state and offered him a lift he would be far too proud to accept it. But not with Mackenzie. He said nothing but opened the door to the passenger side and got inside her car.

When he got into the passenger seat he took a good look at her. He thought she looked a bit different and now he could put his finger on it. He had only ever seen her looking her best, normally with some cute outfit and a face full of makeup. But this morning she was clad in fitness gear and bare faced. Even her hair was unglamorous as it was tied up in a messy ponytail, parts of it soaked and slick with sweat.

"I didn't know you were a fitness person," Michael mused as Mack began to drive to Michael's nearby mansion "If you're a yoga fanatic like the rest of this plastic city, swear to god..."

"I fucking hate yoga! You get shit all of a workout and don't even break a sweat. Plus I can't take it seriously. Pushing your energy to the floor, like what? Don't get me started on the Namaste and Zen shit. They spend half the fucking time lying on a floor with a sweatshirt as a blanket and call it meditation." Mack ranted loudly.

Normally a loud rambling rant would lose Michael's attention fairly quickly. But Mack's tirade was very relevant to his interests as well as his own stance and he found himself grinning at her words.

"What were you doing then?" Michael asked her curiously.

"Spin class. Okay, it's the second worst fad thing after yoga, and the second most upper middle class white girl exercise to do. But it's still better than yoga. You actually work up a sweat and you don't go through heaps of wanky bullshit," Mack continued to ramble on but stopped this time as she was pulled out of her thoughts. "Hang on. I just picked you up in a park and you're in your underwear. What the hell are you doing this morning?"

Michael hesitated a little at Mack's question. He himself wasn't quite sure what happened. He was fairly certain his shit of a son Jimmy had spiked his soda with some kind of substance. But after that, he was clueless. Something about aliens?

It wasn't just the threat of telling misinformation that stopped him from spilling his mind to Mackenzie. He didn't want her to know he was foolish and pathetic. Partly because he didn't want that information to be relayed back to Amanda after the fight they had the previous night. But as much as he wanted to deny it, he knew a big reason was because he also didn't want Mack to think any less of him either. Michael would just respond the best way he knew how. Denial and avoidance.

"Well right before you showed up I was hurling my guts onto the pavement. There was writing in the concrete that said 'Bethany 4 Eugene'. I was wondering if Bethany and Eugene were still together considering the concrete looked fairly old." Michael weakly grinned towards Mack.

"Oh. What conclusion did you come up with?" Mack weakly smiled.

As a very social person, Mack was able to pick up social cues very easily. She was absolutely dying to know how Michael had become stranded in his underwear on a Friday morning in a park. But she could also tell Michael had no current intentions to tell her. Mack was tempted to pry the information from him but decided against it. Mack knew Michael was hot-headed and wouldn't give it to her. She was better off staying in his good books and getting the story at another time.

"There's not a chance in hell Bethany and Eugene are still together. Bethany has always been a hot popular chick's name. Eugene, well, need I say more. Bethany got over whatever drugs she was taking and kicked Eugene to the curb." Michael snorted loudly.

"I'm not a fan of the name Bethany. Besides, you can't judge someone based off their name. For all you know, Eugene on the pavement was called something like Eugene Von Der Penshurst the third, the heir to some snobby old money fortune. Maybe his parents pressured him into breaking up with new money cheerleader Miss Bethany, so he could marry a horse faced German noble girl." Mack stated to the ridiculous conversation just as Michael's mansion came into view on the right side of the road.

Michael was silent for a few moments as Mack's fake theory was absorbed by him. For the first time in a long time he began to chuckle heartily. No one else he knew seemed to enjoy his dry humour. Not only did Mack seem to be entertained by it, she contributed and took it to another level.

He appreciated her contributions to the conversation. He was enjoying her company like he used to before his deep attraction to her washed over him. Where he preferred to speak to her than admire her beauty.

The positive feelings faded as Mack pulled up in his driveway. She didn't cut the engine but did put her car into park and pull the handbrake up.

Michael made no effort to leave the car and the two sat in silence for a few moments as they stared ahead at Michael's mansion. Michael considered telling Mack about the previous day's events. Perhaps she would be able to help him come up with a fair and reasonable explanation that wouldn't turn Amanda into a shrieking harpy.

Mack was also dying to know what had happened but didn't want to pressure Michael into telling. Unfortunately for her she would accidentally push Michael away. In an attempt to not look too nosey and to not occupy Michael's time she would try and push things along.

"So er, are you going to be alright from here? Or do you need me to come in?" Mack nervously asked Michael.

He pondered for a few moments. Perhaps she could come in and vouch for him to Amanda. But then he immediately decided against it. Best case scenario Amanda wouldn't believe Mack. Worst case scenario Amanda would go crazy and accuse him of having an affair with Mack, resulting in Mack hating him. Either way there was nothing of value that could be gained by Mackenzie going inside with him.

"No, no. That's okay." Michael quickly rushed out as he opened up the car door of her small Blista.

"Okay. Well um, good luck. I'll talk to you soon." Mack weakly smiled as her way of saying goodbye to Michael.

Michael only sent her a swift nod as he closed the door. Just before she reversed out of his driveway he approached her car door. He had forgotten to say something, even though showing gratitude was not something he liked to do. Mack pressed the button to allow her driver's side window to go down.

"Thanks for the ride. Appreciate it." Michael stated stiffly.

"No worries. Good luck…again." Mack sweetly smiled as she rolled up the window and reversed out of his driveway, turning up Los Santos Rock Radio as she did so.

"…I hope you all enjoyed the first of our guest presentation. We'll be having guest speakers every Friday for the rest of the semester, so make sure you attend." The professor boomed to the lecture hall.

Mack stood up straight upon hearing her professor's words. At the start of class he had announced there would be a special speaker for today's class. The speaker turned out to be a regional manager for Cluckin' Bell. He had spent the entire time cockily speaking himself up. He bragged that he dropped out of school to flip burgers and had worked his way up the chain, dropping many less than subtle hints that they all too should drop out of college and follow in his path.

Mack found him irritating and instead got her laptop out to scroll through LifeInvader during the lecture. Her screen couldn't be seen from the front. As far as the professor and speaker knew, she could have been taking notes.

"But I need to take one class off a week to um…to errrr," A male student piped up confidently before realising his mistake of admitting his intentions out loud "administer my medicinal product."

"You can pick another class to bunk off to get high in that case." The professor scoffed towards the male student.

The male student nervously eyed his friend but then grinned and high fived the friend before scampering out of the lecture theatre. After the first two left a stampede began as students all packed out of the theatre. This was Mack's queue to pack up and she placed her laptop in her bag before she began to shuffle out.

Mack got out her phone and noticed three missed calls from her brother and five text messages. It was quite strange – Brandon never called her. The last time he had actually called her was a couple of years prior to inform her of their last remaining parent, their father's death. Therefore Mack was quite frightened to see the missed calls and anxiously read the text messages.

Hey Mack – let's go out tonight!

Mackenzie Lancaster – answer your phone!

Do you want me to call you by your real name?

I know you're ignoring me. It says you're on LifeInvader right now

Fine. Fuck you.

Mack didn't bother to text him back and immediately called Brandon's phone. It only took a few rings for him to pick up.

"Little sister. How are you? What's wrong?" Brandon slurred on the other end of the line.

"What's wrong? You're the one I have heaps of missed calls from, and a few text messages. I'm asking you what's wrong?" Mack exaggerated to her brother. She was walking through the campus to the bus stop but stopped momentarily to sigh and touch the bridge of her nose in frustration.

It didn't help that Mack could clearly tell her brother was drunk.

"I called you? Oh yes. I had some good news." Brandon sang out.

Mack smiled as she continued making her way through the campus. It now made sense on why Brandon called her instead of texted. He had good news. For the first time in his life he was calling because it was good news. Not because it was bad news.

"Yes? What is it?" Mack asked sounding excited.

"Amanda and Michael are getting a divorce!" Brandon shouted.

"What?" Mack spluttered out "That's your good news?"

"It sure is. Do you know how long it's been since I slept with that hot piece of ass? It was when I was still married to Melody, that's how long it's been." Brandon responded.

"I didn't know you slept with Michael, or found him attractive. But each to their own." Mack snorted at her own joke.

"Are you out of your mind? I'm not gay! I was talking about Amanda. She put the brakes on extra marital affairs with people within our social circle after Michael started becoming suspicious. But that won't be an issue anymore." Brandon responded as his drunken mind couldn't interpret Mack's obvious joke.

"Okay Brandon. Say, you should give Amanda a call. See what she's up to." Mack suggested, finding the first thing she could think of to get off the phone with her drunken brother.

"Great idea. Talk to you later little sister." Brandon said as the line went dead moments later.

Mack immediately felt a little bad as the gravity of the situation hit her. According to Brandon, Michael and Amanda had separated. Mack knew they had their ups and (mostly) downs, but knew they had never actually announced separation before. Then she went and suggested for Brandon to call the newly single Amanda for a booty call. This made Mack feel really guilty.

Mack felt really bad for Michael. They were friends...at least she thought they were. They used to spend one on one time together and got along really well. But recently he had distanced himself from her, especially when Trevor came on the scene. This morning was the first time they had spoken properly in a while.

Mack then felt guilty again as she remembered the previous morning. She never got the details from Michael but it can't have been a coincidence that she found him in a park early morning only in his underwear hurling his guts, and that same day he and Amanda were separating. Is there more she could have done to prevent this?

As Mack was walking past the Student Association's office she noticed they had received a liquor delivery and saw bottles of vodka, gin, tequila and other assorted wines glistening in the San Andreas' sunlight. After taking a cheeky peek around she quickly lowered herself to the ground and unzipped her backpack.

She still considered Michael a friend and had just the idea on how to cheer him up.

Hopefully I didn't offend any yoga people out there, but I'm guessing if there is legitimately any yoga fans reading this, y'all must be pretty desensitized to the hate after playing the game. I will admit I do take a yoga class on occasion - mostly when my muscles are sore from a killer workout the day before.