Toni stared at the hand that touched hers, warm and slightly pale, like so many other hands, but what caused her to stare wasn't the warmth it gave out, no it was actually the faint crackling of electricity that shocked her that brought her stare to it, this was followed by black veins peeking out from under the cuff of the man's shirt.
"Sorry." the man's voice claimed, their hand retracting almost instantly as if she had burned him, Toni looked up instantly at him just in time to see them pull their arm behind their back, she knew those marks, she grew up with them. "I should be the one apologizing." she countered, giving the stranger a grim smile before taking a step back, allowing the man to reach for the book without having to worry about touching her.
She turned around to continue doing what she had been doing before when the stranger inquired "Are you by any chance Antoinette Belgrave?" Toni froze in her step, silently begging someone to shoot her down. "I'm not a stalker or anything." the man quickly exclaimed, the sound of his voice still slightly distant meaning he hadn't stepped closer.
"I work part-time at the university's office and I may have overheard the Headmistress saying her daughter, Antoinette, would be attending." at his words Toni turned around, brow raised and a questioning look in her eyes. The man was clearly a year or two older than her, had brown hair and brown eyes, slightly taller than average and had a cute nerd charm to him.
"Also there aren't that many people with vibrant ginger hair in campus, counting the new students." the man didn't seem to be able to stop rambling because he just kept talking, his cheeks turning red at his inability to halt his words before they left his lips. "And that sounded incredibly stalkerish." he mumbled lowly.
Toni had two choices, humiliate the guy or play it cool.
Naturally, she went to the second one, giving the man a charming smile that seemed to ease the man completely before boldly stating "I think it's only fair I know you name since you know mine." The man exhaled in relief and smiled slightly before replying "Hamish Duke."
"Well Hamish Duke," Toni started, her green eyes locking with his brown ones "Enjoy Edgar Allen Poe's poems." turning her heel around and continuing her walk away leaving behind a confused second-year student looking at her with silver eyes.
"He's a cute looking boy." a familiar voice claimed as Toni moved to another row of bookcases, "I'm not looking for relationships." she replied, rolling her eyes at the person, "I never said you should date him, I merely said he's cute looking." the voice chuckled, "I've known you my whole life, I know what you mean when you say things." Toni snorted.
