Grooving to Life's Beat

Beginnings: Notes from the Narrator

Hello, to everyone who's ever fallen for the wrong person or the right verse at the wrong time.

I am your humble narrator, Emma Spencer, just a sprightly 23-year-old with a tale that's as tangled as as it is inevitable.

The plot is simple: a girl who's all about pen and paper, meets a bad boy whose edge is so sharp it could slice through steel. You know... the kind of guy your mother warns you about while secretly remembering her own version of him.

When I first met Marshall, I thought I knew the shape of my life. I had rules. Plans. A carefully folded future wrapped in my parents' expectations and sealed with my own quiet ambition. I was the girl who played it safe, who followed the script. Who never missed deadlines or made a scene.

And he? He was the chaos I was raised to avoid. The boy with the sharp tongue and dangerous smile. The boy who never followed a rule in his life unless it was his own.

And yes, this story is about love. But not the tidy kind wrapped in a bow. No. This is the kind that rips through you like a storm and leaves you wondering whether you're shivering from the cold or from something you'll never admit out loud.

It's about bad decisions and worse timing. About trying to be good while craving something wild. About the people we become when no one's watching and the ones who still choose us anyway.

So if you're into messes that wear lipstick and heartbreaks that come with a hoodie and a pair of perfect blue eyes, buckle up.

I'm Emma Spencer.

And this is how I broke every rule I was raised to follow.