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

Beauchamp was a weird place, in Jayden’s opinion. It was entirely constructed out of detached six-bedroom houses with big gardens and gates at the end of the drive. Attlee Road was all terraced houses and box gardens, bits of bicycle on clumps of stray grass, and a notice about dog fouling right above a patch of pavement covered in shit. Hayley Lane, when Darren led him into it, was nothing of the sort. It was a cluster of maybe twelve houses, all with identical trimmed lawns and freshly washed cars in the driveways. Driveways with gates. Who didthat? It wasn’t like it was going to stop anyone nicking the car or ringing the bell or whatever, right?


Chapter 64