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

Darren didn’t look awake. His eyes were closed, his face slack, one arm still strapped to his chest and the other limp under Scott’s hand. He still looked shockingly white, but his hair was fluffier, like it had been washed, and the awful monitors were gone.


“Darren?” Jayden coaxed, going around to the other side of the bed and pulling up the spare chair.


His voice prompted a stir, or an almost stir—a shift of faint movement so tiny it was almost under the skin entirely, and then it rippled into his face, those brilliant green eyes glittering through tiny slits before he opened them properly, and oh…


Jayden felt the tears rushing up, and one escaped before he catch it. He scrubbed furiously with one hand, the other gently reaching out to tuck a curl behind Darren’s ear. “Oh, my God, you’re here,” he whispered, and his throat closed up with painfully sharp relief.


Chapter 95