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

And then Darren was letting go, slipping away into the night, dragging his fingers along Jayden’s arm to squeeze his hand before he disappeared, and Jayden leaned against the lamp-post for balance as he watched him go, dizzy with the sheer shock of his life right at that minute.


For the last two years, Jayden had had a life plan. Get the sixth form scholarship to St. John’s. Get straight As in his A-levels. Get into the University of Cambridge. Get a boyfriend. Live. In that exact order.


Somehow, he’d turned it over, and gotten the boyfriend before any of the rest fell into place. And being able to say ‘boyfriend’ in relation to himself was strange and heavy and amazing.


Chapter 28