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Chapter One: Her
HIS POV
The freshly fallen autumn leaves crunched beneath my feet as I trudged through the courtyard on campus, the breeze whistling lightly in the trees as I wrapped my coat more around myself. Hamilton University campus was almost deserted, the freshman were not scheduled to be on campus for another couple of days and the second years and seniors would not be around for two weeks but having returned from Paris early I wanted to check up on my mice. Having spoken to Natalia, the accommodations officer on campus she had made arrangements for me to stay at the Hamilton cottage. It was a small abandoned building on the west side of the campus that I used as my work space outside of the lab, it was also easier to study there.
The wind rustled blowing my thick curly red hair over my face, I batted them away aggressively and proceeded up the steps. The sound of a car pulling up slowed my footsteps, I turned to see a yellow taxi cab pulling into the courtyard. I shoved my hands into my pockets and waited expecting to see Natalia emerge but the driver, a tall and bulky old man with a bushy mustache emerged instead, nodded to me acknowledging my presence and then moved swiftly to unloading suitcases from the trunk. As he did this a tall, skinny, black girl hopped from the back seat of the car. The first thing that caught my eyes were her lovely lips stained with red lipstick and then her large hazel eyes were somehow over powered by the thick layer of black makeup that gave her a gothic look.
She looked me over swiftly from head to toe before quickly paying the driver and collecting her suitcases. She was young, maybe eighteen or nineteen but tall. Her army green trench coat hung loosely around her frame with a Dark knight T-shirt in view over black skinny jeans and combat boots. After the cab pulled away she walked closer to me but maintained some distance as she spoke.
“Can you direct me to Taylor Hall?” her voice was not what I expected, raspy and deep with a faint British accent.
For a moment I was stunned captivated by her beauty, I adjusted my glasses clearing my throat a bit before speaking. “Are you a freshman? Rush week is not for another two days. I don’t think any of the halls are open yet.” I bit the inside of my cheek my heart rate accelerating as she uttered a low curse and kicked her suitcase.
“What the fuck am I supposed to do now?” she slumped down on the pavement just as thunder rumbled in the distance.
I looked left and right not sure what to do next. She dug into her knapsack and removed her cellphone tapping the screen multiple times. “There’s a hotel quarter mile up the road from here” I said rubbing my forehead slightly. She looked up at me her hazel eyes piercing to my dark brown making me uncomfortable a little so I looked away. “But if not you can stay at the cottage with me its-”
She got up quickly dusting off her jeans and moved closer to me in a stalking manner like a predator approaching his prey and cocked one of her perfectly shaped brow at me. “Anyone else on campus?”
I gulped my glasses fogging up at the sudden heat that surged through my body. “Ahh, I…I don’t think so.”
She stepped back clutching her suitcase then, as the rain began to drizzle lightly, “Where’s the cottage?”
