It started with mistake made by campus housing. When Jake and Jordan decided to attend the same college, they had no plans to room together. In fact, it never crossed their minds that sharing a dorm room was an option.
So it came as a huge surprise in the summer before starting college when Jake checked his rooming assignment online, only to find that he would be rooming with his twin sister Jordan. After sharing a good laugh and arguing over who would call to tell campus housing about their mistake, Jake and Jordan went out to a movie with some friends and quickly forgot about it.
As the move to campus drew closer, neither had called campus housing. Jake waited for Jordan to bring it up. Jordan waited for Jake to bring it up.
They finally discussed it while half-drunk at a farewell party at a friend's lake house. The twins found themselves sitting alone on the dock, a few bottles strewn around them. His fourth Jack and Coke in hand, Jake looked at his sister and said what he had been thinking for the past few weeks.
"So about our rooming situation..." he said.
Jordan took a sip of her beer and nodded for him to continue.
"I was thinking...we're moving 900 miles away from home to a school where we don't really know anyone," he said. "Part of the reason I feel okay about moving that far from home is that you're going to be there too."
"Same here," Jordan said.
"Well, what if we just didn't say anything to campus housing? I think it might actually be way more fun and less stressful if we lived together."
She nodded and looked like she was pondering a new idea.
"Think about it," Jake continued, "we're best friends. We've never shared a room, but we both know what the other is like to live with. And we don't have to worry about getting a nightmare roommate scenario. Am I crazy or is this kind of perfect?"
"You're definitely not crazy," Jordan said. "I've actually had the same thought. I mean, we're living in a co-ed residence hall, so it's really not that big of a deal if we stay with our rooming assignment."
"Good point," said Jake.
Jordan pulled a bottle of tequila and two solo cups from the shadows to her right. She poured generous shots into each cup, then handed one to Jake.
"You have to promise me one thing," she said.
"What's that?"
"You'll clear out if I want to have guys over - I can't have my brother cramping my style."
Jake laughed, nearly spilling his drink.
"I see, so you hook up once on prom night and suddenly you're going to be the big woman on campus?"
"What can I say?" she shrugged her shoulders. "It turns out I have a gift. I can't in good conscience hide it from the good men of campus. It wouldn't be fair."
Jake contemplated that for a few seconds.
"Can't say my college plans are a whole lot different than yours." He held up his solo cup in her direction. "It's a deal, roomie."
Jordan tapped her cup against his and the twins knocked back their tequila shots together.
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The twins decided move-in day was the biggest threat to their plan to room together. Even at a school of 25,000 students, there was a strong chance that someone would catch the mistake. Jake and Jordan told their parents that the school had done it on purpose, hiding from their supportive parents that co-ed rooming arrangements were not allowed by the school.
Figuring that the school had most likely mistaken Jordan for a guy, it was decided that Jake would check in first to feel out the situation. Since they were siblings moving in together, the student volunteer working the desk handed Jake both of their keys. That was the closest the school came to catching its mistake that day.
The first night, after meeting a few of their new neighbors and giving them the same story they gave their parents - that the school made an exception to its rule and put them together on purpose - Jake and Jordan retired to their room around 11:00 p.m.
"I still can't believe how nice this dorm is," Jordan said, sitting down on her bed. "What freshman residence hall has private bathrooms for each room?"
"Someone told me they put the freshmen in the nicest dorms to boost retention," Jake replied. "Upper class housing apparently sucks...So I guess we better enjoy it."
Jake walked over to his dresser and retrieved a pair of boxers to sleep in, stopping after realizing that he couldn't change yet. The twins had not yet confronted this reality of cohabitating.
Jordan bailed him out from awkwardly standing beside his dresser by standing up, grabbing her towel, and declaring that she was taking a shower.
Once the door was shut and the water turned on, Jake quickly slipped off his shorts, shirt, and boxer-briefs and changed into boxers for bed. Though he and Jordan were best friends and had seen each other in their underwear somewhat regularly, the last time they had seen each other naked had been an embarrassing shower walk-in incident in middle school.
Jake was reading in bed under the covers when Jordan emerged from the bathroom, wrapped in a clean white towel. She grabbed a pair of panties and an old t-shirt from her dresser, then walked across the room and stood next to Jake's bed.
He looked up from his book as she set her clothes down on his bed.
