Arizona Wakefield was a beat without a melody. Living a half-breathing life in a half-finished neighborhood with parents who always wore half-hearted smiles, the high school senior only had one thing that let her color outside her family’s perfectly drawn lines—her drums.
Jesse Barringer was a song without a chorus. The son of a washed-up rock star who’s also one hell of a deadbeat dad, he was given two things from his father—musical genius and a genetic link to the bipolar disorder that drives him mad.
One night in a garage at the end of a cul-de-sac in the middle of a bankrupt California neighborhood, Jesse’s melody found Arizona’s rhythm. An angry boy with storm-colored eyes found a blonde angel in Doc Martens with missing lines in her own story. Where her rhythm stopped, his words took over, and together, they wrote one hell of a story.
** Drummer Girl is a mature YA/New Adult romance that touches on mental health, drug abuse and includes mature sexual situations.
Love Words from Arizona to Jesse
Dear Jesse,
You always get to hit me in the chest with your thoughts and feelings with the songs you write. Tonight, when we go on stage, I’m going to hit you with some of mine. They’re the best possible thoughts and feelings in the world, even if my song writing is rather cliché and not even in the same songbook as yours.
But, the band knows how this goes. All you’ll have to do is sing the words. I hope you like it. It’s all for you. Happy Valentine’s Day.
(It starts with a super cool piano solo that feels a little moody. Rag worked really hard on learning it so let him have his moment. Be patient.)
Have I always had this girl?
I think maybe I have.
I didn’t always know her, but her heart was meant for me.
Has she always loved me?
I think maybe she has.
She didn’t know what that feeling was, but her heart it beat for me.
She says the sunsets are always better…
The dark times always shorter…
She says she wasn’t whole until I came along…
Did you know Arizona is more than just a song?
Is she my forever?
This girl, she says it’s so.
I struggle to believe her, but she’s always proven me wrong.
I guess always is more than just this song.
There are words I could not say,
Lyrics I could not sing.
But this girl she thinks I’m capable of anything.
One day I’ll believe she’s right,
Because we don’t like to fight.
Forever isn’t very long,
Too short for me and the girl who’s more than a song.
Ok. It’s a little hokey. But basically, I wanted you to know how much I believe in you and trust you and am every bit yours. Now, go pretend we aren’t together for a two-hour set so the women in the front row get the show they paid for. Mr. Sex Rock God LOL.
Love you always,
Arizona
About the Author
Ginger Scott is an Amazon-bestselling and Goodreads Choice and Rita Award-nominated author from Peoria, Arizona. She is the author of several young and new adult romances, including recent bestsellers The Hard Count, A Boy Like You, A Girl Like Me, Cry Baby, This Is Falling and Wild Reckless.
A sucker for a good romance, Ginger’s other passion is sports, and she often blends the two in her stories. She has been writing and editing for newspapers, magazines and blogs for a hella long time. She has told the stories of Olympians, politicians, actors, scientists, cowboys, criminals and towns. For more on her and her work, visit her website at http://www.littlemisswrite.com.
When she’s not writing, the odds are high that she’s somewhere near a baseball diamond, either watching her son field pop flies like Bryce Harper or cheering on her favorite baseball team, the Arizona Diamondbacks. Ginger lives in Arizona and is married to her college sweetheart whom she met at ASU (fork ’em, Devils).
