Matthew J. Metzger

Out-and-regretting-it comprehensive attendee Jayden Phillips turns his cast-iron plans for life upside-down by falling in love with private-school violinist Darren Peace, a sardonic boy with the craziest hair Jayden's ever seen.<br><br>But all is not what it seems, and Jayden's bullying problem becomes meaningless when he is confronted with what the music does to Darren. How do you stop a dangerous depression rooted in the same thing that makes someone what they are? Dark moods, blank apathy, and the undertow of self-loathing all simmer beneath Darren's dry and beautiful veneer, and Jayden feels powerless to stop them.<br><br>Then a mugging gone wrong takes the music forcibly away, and Jayden is finally given the chance to change Darren's life -- and, quite literally, his mind.

Vivaldi in the Dark

Jayden snorted. “Call me names, mostly. I mean, it’s not fun, you know, I don’t like it, but it is mostly just name-calling. Since we got mixed up into the GCSE classes, I don’t share lessons with most of them anymore. And when I do…you know, they write on my things, they rip up my work. They’ve stolen my blazer a few times. It’s, you know, little stuff. It’s not that bad. Really, it’s not.”


“So why do you sound like you’re trying to convince yourself, not me?”


“Let’s not talk about this,” Jayden pleaded. He sounded pathetic and he knew it, but he didn’t want to talk about this. He didn’t want to tell Darren what it was like—Darren, who probably didn’t have the first idea about…about being gay at a school like Woodbourne. Darren wasn’t even gay—or probably wasn’t, and if he was, anyway, surely he would have said something on Tuesday? So he wasn’t. So he had no idea.


Chapter 8