Paper Hearts (TK & MM)

Chapter 1

"Tori, so nice to meet you!" Paul Rosenberg, a big yet oddly sweet man took my hand in his and gave it a friendly shake. I was standing right in the middle of the Shady Records lobby, looking around at all of the huge mountings on the wall of rap artists, such as Royce da 5'9, Yelawolf, and of course, the man himself: Eminem. It was honestly surreal.

First off, I feel as if I should explain.

As you know, I'm Victoria Loren Kelly, otherwise known as Tori Kelly.

If anybody knows anything about me at all, they would know that I started my music career on Youtube at the age of 14, soon progressing on to Vine as I got older. I'm 22 years old, originally from Wildomar, CA.

(Considering that this is a fanfiction about Tori and Marshall, I'm definitely going to be making some things up - as in, where she's living right now, who she's "dating", friends, things like that. Anywho, carry on.)

I'm currently living in Detroit, Michigan, even though my record label is all the way back in LA. I end up having to make trips back and forth, more frequently than normal. But, I loved living in Detroit, and I didn't plan on moving back home unless I absolutely had to.

Growing up in the environment I did, music was pretty much all I had really ever known. I was familiar with people, such as Justin Timberlake.. Prince.. even Maxwell. I was also familiar with many groups, along the lines of The Rolling Stones.. The Beatles.. etc. My life didn't revolve around those genres altogether - I loved rap. I am completely in love with it.

Biggie, N.W.A., Obie, Dre, Kendrick, Kanye, and of course, Eminem. I loved him. I've always admired Eminem; his flow was sick, his rhymes were completely ridiculous - in a good way, of course - and he was a huge influence on what I wanted to do when I held a microphone for the first time.

Eminem's record company had, apparently, heard of me, and the small EP I put out a couple of months ago, and I received an email from them the other night asking if I would be interested in coming down to the studio to meet everybody, and potientally talk about a collaboration. Of course, I emailed back immediately, letting them I know I was extremely interested, and I would be more than happy to meet them.

So, I'm here now, standing right in front of Paul Rosenberg, shaking his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Rosenberg." I politely replied. He smiled back at me, and I realized that he's not as intimidating as I thought. I mean, he was; but not extremely intimidating.

"Follow me," He said, as we started walking down the large hallway filled with nothing but cases of awards, and framed platinum records. I couldn't keep my eyes off of the walls, I was beyond impressed. Each award consisted of belonging to people such as Obie, Marshall (of course), D12, Yela, Slaughterhouse, etc. If I wasn't intimidated already, I definitely am now. Good Lord.

"Em's really excited to meet you," Paul spoke up, snapping me out of my thoughts. "He, actually, hasn't shut up about it."

I was appalled. "Really?"

"Oh, yeah," He replied. "He's been wanting to meet you for the longest time."

I was smiling really big, and I was praying he didn't notice. I immediately put on a serious face and responded. "I'm glad we're finally getting to. I've admired him as an artist for as long as I can remember." We continued to talk about Marshall as we reached a set of tinted glass double doors, Paul pulling one open as we stepped into the room.

It was a huge, maroon-colored meeting room, filled with even more trophy cases, and framed records, with a gigantic mahogany table with several chairs seated in the very middle. Only a few were filled; one of which consisted of none other, than Jimmy Iovine. I was in awe, at everything. There was an empty chair beside of Jimmy's, which I assumed was for Paul.