I quickly threw on some clothes and opened the door.
The two of them sat at the little circular kitchen table, each with a mug clasped in their hands. Apparently Emma's latest conquest had already been shooed away. They looked at me with mischief in their eyes. Great.
Sydney smirked. "Morning sleeping beauty."
I laughed and shook my head. "I suppose I don't need to introduce you two."
Emma shook her head. "I think the three of us are beyond that, wouldn't you say?"
I blushed beet red. "Good lord." Two girls teaming up to tease and torture me. Just what I need.
But I sat down with them, and eventually conversation moved away from smirking teases, to real conversation. Apparently Emma had already told Sydney about our past lives in high school, and the sudden reversal in our proclivities.
Sydney seemed tickled, and not offended, by my promiscuous past and the idea that she might be the one to finally tame the wild beast. And she, like me, found it empowering to hear Emma's story of prudish nerd finding and enjoying her sexuality.
The conversation flowed and moved onto more mundane topics. We talked and laughed until our stomachs rumbled, at which point we headed out to get brunch together.
By the time Sydney headed back home, it was obvious Emma approved. But she turned to me and said it anyway.
"If you hurt her, I'll kill you." I laughed, but then I noticed my sisters eyes were deadly serious.
"Okay okay!" I crossed my heart. "I promise." Emma nodded. I was truly delighted that she saw the same thing in her that I did, and that they got along so well. Emma was a part of me, so anyone I let into my life was going to be a part of hers, too.
Over the next several weeks, we settled into a routine. We'd go out on dates on weekends, and sometimes just hang out on weekdays when we had time. Sometimes we'd end up back at her place, but dealing with her roommates was a bit of a hassle, and her bed was about half the size of mine. So much more often we'd come back to mine. And nine times out of ten, Emma would be in her room with a guy, announcing her pleasure to the entire apartment building.
And often Sydney and I would be on the other side of the wall, doing much the same, only slightly more quietly.
Sometimes during the mornings afterwards, the three of us would acknowledge it, tease each other about particular sounds or dirty talk we'd heard. But usually we'd just go about our days as normal, as if we weren't invisible parts of each others' sex lives.
It was a strange set up, but it worked. And every week, things between Sydney and I just got better. We'd laugh together, talk about everything and nothing, and of course have incredible sex.
After about a month and a half, during parent's weekend, we met each other's families, who seemed to approve. After two months, we started calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend. At the end of three months, I was certain. This girl was the one for me.
But, if I had to pinpoint a moment my life truly began to change, it'd be a night just before we were all going to go back to our hometowns for winter break, when Sydney and I were walking through the park. It was freezing cold, so we were bundled up, and the park was nearly empty.
We walked slowly, and talked about how much we were going to miss each other for these next three weeks. We made plans to do video calls, maybe some sexy ones if we could find some privacy in our families' homes. We'd send each other home with our Christmas presents and call each other sometime that day to open them together.
I looked at her, and she smiled back at me but I could see right past that to the sadness and anxiety underneath.
I stopped and squeezed her hand. "Hey... I know we're gonna miss each other. A lot. But in three weeks we'll be right back here, picking up where we left off." I'd never talked like this with a girl before. With all the girls back in high school it was smooth talk to charm them, then our lips did the talking, and then it was onto the next before it got too serious. But with Sydney these words came easy.
We hadn't said it yet, but as I looked at her, with her little nose blushed red from the frigid air, held-back tears sparkling at the corners of her eyes, I knew this was the time.
"Syd... I love you."
Her eyes grew wide. The tears fell. She threw her arms around me and pressed her lips against mine. I tasted salt as her tongue met mine.
When we pulled apart she said, "I love you, too."
It was like the entire world shifted into place, and everything made sense.
Her mood lifted, and we kept walking, talking about slightly lighter stuff. But eventually I could tell something was on Sydney's mind.
She led us to a bench where we sat down. It was cold against our backs and butts, but it was nice to sit. She turned to me.
"There's one more thing I wanted to talk about." My heart sank. She seemed so serious. Any conversation like this had to be bad, right? She immediately saw that in me and quickly followed up, "It's not anything bad, I promise. Maybe awkward, but not bad."
"Ok, what do you want to talk about?" I took a breath to calm myself.
"I guess we've talked about it a little, acknowledged it... the thing with your sister. The walls. Hearing her..." I nodded. I wondered if we'd ever have this conversation. Not that I really knew what there was to say.
Sydney continued. "I'm bringing this up not to shame you or anything. I love you. I mean it. But... you know... I've definitely noticed... you get more... excited... when we can hear her." I opened my mouth to say something, and she could tell I was going to be defensive so she raised her hand. "And I love it! I don't know what that says about me, but it doesn't gross me out at all. But I guess I just wanted to talk about it. To tell you how I'm feeling and see how you are."
"Um... well... thanks for saying that. I appreciate that. But yeah... I don't know how to explain it. I'm not sure I've admitted it to myself but... it's kinda hot. And yeah, maybe it is something that says a little bit about both of us, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, is it?"
She smiled and shook her head. "Not necessarily. But it is something we need to figure out how to handle."
I nodded. But then I turned to look at her inquisitively. "Handle... handle how?"
She laughed and leaned in, her head resting against my shoulder. "Honestly? I'm not sure. That's part of what we have to figure out. But just like anything else in our relationship, it's worth talking about."
"You're right."
She squeezed my hand, and we were quiet for a minute.
She looked at me, mischief back in her eyes. "It is hot, though, isn't it?" She laughed, and I joined her. "I love hearing that little slut get spanked." I looked at her and raised my eyebrows, and we both erupted in laughter.
"... I do too." Sydney smiled at me, and I could see she was relishing this honesty, the transparency.
Her eyes twinkled. "Maybe tonight you can spank me." That was a new one.
I grinned and took the bait. "Is that what you want, babe?"
"Mhmm." She hummed a little affirmative.
I pulled her close and whispered into her ear, "Are you a little slut too, Syd?"
She giggled. "Only when I want to be."
"And do you want to be?"
"Only for you, hotshot."
For the next few days we spent as much time together as we could. Kissing, fucking, talking, saying "I love you" and "babe."
And then, for the first time in our young relationship, we had a tearful goodbye.
The next day Emma was sweet to me as we drove to the airport to fly home. Over the last few months she'd kept to her love 'em and leave 'em ways. There were plenty of repeat visitors, but rarely on consecutive visits. More of a rotation than a relationship. I think Emma was kind of living vicariously through Sydney and I. She'd hang out with us, get meals with us, and that was enough commitment for her. So she had nothing in particular to miss during the break, other than her new friend Sydney.
So she held my hand and told me this feeling was a sign of just how good I'd done at picking Sydney.
In that moment I looked over at my sister, and I was reminded of the conversation I'd had with Sydney in the park, and the subtext underneath it. My twin sister wasn't just my sister. She was my best friend, my confidante, my other half. And she was a sexual creature. I saw her beauty and her poise. I could also hear her moans from the many nights back at the apartment.
The light we were stopped at turned green, a car honked behind us, and the reverie I was in was gone.
We made it to the airport and got through security. Emma had gotten me a window seat. The plane began to move and I stared out at the tarmac, my new home moving away from me.
When we landed our parents were waiting just outside security. They squeezed us and teased us about gaining the freshman fifteen (we really hadn't).
Back at home everything felt so normal. No thin walls, no one-night-stands. My sister was just my sister. We fell back into old routines, fighting over the shower, dipping our fingers into mom's cooking as she swatted us away. Any time I could, I'd sneak away to call Sydney. One night we whispered into our phones as we touched ourselves.
On Christmas we all opened presents together, and afterwards Sydney and I had a video call to open our own presents together. She opened my present, a gold necklace I'd bought with tips from the bar I'd been saving for months. And I opened hers, a beautiful leather-bound journal. She told me to open it and, stuck between the first pages was a little handmade coupon. She told me to make sure I was alone before I read it.
"One hour-long massage from me, with a happy ending ;)" and a lipstick kiss at the bottom.
I told her I couldn't wait to get back to campus so I could redeem it.
The rest of winter break was pretty uneventful. At one point Emma and I were out at a local bar that was notorious for never carding, meeting up with some of our old buds from high school. As the night drew on, we ended up alone at the bar, pretty drunk. We'd been laughing and reminiscing about our high school days, when Emma turned to look deep into my eyes.
"You know... I wasn't sure how it was gonna be... us living together." I nodded, knowing what she meant. We were twins, as close as could be, but being roommates, without Mom and Dad, it was a very new dynamic. "But I gotta say, I think we make a good team."
I grinned, a bit teasingly at her sudden sincerity. But I nodded. "Yeah I guess you could call us that."
Drunkenly she nodded. "What I mean is, I guess... you're a pretty good roommate. Thanks, bro." I raised my bottle and she clinked hers against it.
"Back atcha, Em."
