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

“You sure you want this much detail?”


Darren took a breath. “Right. Well. He told me to give him my phone. I told him to piss off. He grabbed for it. I hit him, he stabbed me. I’ll be honest, I thought he’d punched me. Seriously,” he added. “I didn’t realise. I just had so much adrenaline in my system, I didn’t notice. So I punched him, hard as I could. So he stabbed me in the shoulder, twice, and the second time…”


Jayden squeezed his hand when he trailed off. He felt sick. It was burning low in his stomach, and he had the awful feeling that maybe he didn’t want to hear this, but he had to know. He had to know.


“The knife. It got stuck.” Darren pulled a face. “The doctor said he hit the bones in the joint and it…well, yeah.”


“Oh, God, I think I’m going to be sick,” Jayden mumbled, clapping a hand over his mouth. The nausea swelled; Darren’s hand rubbed up his side in slow, firm strokes.


“Hey. Hey. Relax, come on. Deep breaths.”


Chapter 100