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

“I’m so proud of you, sweetheart,” she murmured. “You’re being so adult about this. It can’t be easy.”


Jayden folded his arms around himself. “It’s Darren,” he said weakly. “I just…I don’t mind, ‘cause it’s for Darren.” He still didn’t feel like he could cope, like he could handle it, but…but it was true. It was Darren


She smiled and gathered him into a hug again, her plastic apron pressing into his arms. “Well, if either of you need anything—at any time—you just come and tell me,” she said, letting go and squeezing his bicep in one damp, Fairy-liquid-smooth hand. “And if he wants to spend the night, then that’s fine, but leave the door open, and no funny business.”


Jayden bit his lip against the threatening smile and nodded.


“I mean it! You’re sixteen years old.”


“You were only nineteen when you had me.”


Chapter 79