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

They had barely reached the auditorium again before Jayden felt the question rising up in his throat, and he sounded just like Darren with his complete lack of filter when he blurted out, “Who’s Sam?” in the middle of aisle, clutching his strawberries-and-cream smoothie and wanting to simultaneously run away and shake the answer out.


Darren blinked and uttered the worst response ever. “Who?”


“What do you mean who?!” Jayden shouted. “The guy you’ve been calling! The guy you’ve called more than thirty times since whenever you cleared your phone last! You’ve only called me, like, ten times in ever!”


“Hey, whoa, wha—you went through my contacts?” Darren demanded.


“Show me,” Darren snapped and tossed him the phone. Jayden fumbled to catch it. “What were you doing going through my call log anyway?”


“I was curious!” Jayden defended himself.


“You wanted to see who I’d been calling.”


Chapter 73