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

He understood sadness. He understood anger. He understood coming home from school and wishing the day had never happened. He understood being lonely, and not fitting in, and having nobody to talk to, because Darren had plugged so many of those gaps, before they’d ever even kissed. But he didn’t understand wanting to actually die because of it. He didn’t…


He didn’t know where the hell Darren was coming from.


Chapter 34