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

“Um, hi,” Jayden said, and grinned nervously, hands deep in his pockets, as the others filtered out with a variety of goodbyes called over their shoulders. “Um. So. I don’t…I mean, I don’t really know what…what’s standard after you kiss someone in the street, but, um…”


Darren watched him ramble as he approached the stage and dropped his arm until the violin rested on the seat. His shoulder ached. His lower lip sparked with the memory of that sudden kiss. He hadn’t felt that alive in…months. Months


“I…” Jayden stopped where the carpet met the stage. “I kind of…” Darren watched the flush work its way up his neck. “I kind of want to kiss you again,” he admitted.


Darren smiled and dropped off the edge of the stage. He deliberately dropped too close, and Jayden didn’t back up. At this distance, Darren could just about make out the wide black of his pupils against the dark brown of the iris. “Okay,” he said, and those pupils expanded slightly.


Chapter 24