Vivaldi in the Dark

Chapter 7-1

Chapter 7

Your English is awful.

Darren smirked. Yep deal w/ it! he replied and slid the phone back into his pocket. Miss West wouldn’t have noticed if he’d had his phone on the table, but at least if he kept pocketing it, Paul couldn’t read it and get involved. And Darren liked keeping a secret from Paul and his partner in crime, even if it was only for a while.

The fact was, Jayden was attractive. Darren wasn’t an i***t. He knew when he was attracted to someone, and he was attracted to Jayden. And judging by the way Jayden would veer between insulting his hair (he hadn’t said anything, but Darren had seen that disbelieving look before) and punching him in the shoulder, and stuttering and fumbling over simple sentences, Darren thought it was fairly safe to say that the feeling wasn’t entirely unrequited.

No, I’m serious. I can barely understand you.

LOL nvm

What???

Darren smirked again and hid the phone when Paul leaned over. Jayden was apparently on lunch break; Darren was starving to death waiting for it to arrive. U cant use 3 ?s in a row :P he informed Jayden when Paul went back to drawing boobs on his notes.

Smartarse.

Not even a word :D

Darren wasn’t new to finding people attractive. He was even rather good at getting over it if he had to (like the awkward summer when his hormones had decided, with the lack of anything else to look at, that Ethan had a nice arse). And Jayden fitted in rather well with his history of liking people: fair-haired, slim build, clever. The dark eyes were a bit unusual, and the terminal case of tongue-tied shyness, but Darren guessed that that would go away as Jayden got used to him. Or got over him, whichever came first.

It was sad, really. In any other world, Darren would have gone for it by now. He’d made a couple of passes, when his lack of filter decided to make itself known, but he was determined to leave it there. Jayden had enough crap going on without adding a f****d-up boyfriend to the list, and was Darren f****d up? Was he ever.

To make it worse, Darren had a suspicion that Jayden was inadvertently helping out with the f****d-upness. He’d been steadier lately. He’d had a good run. It was still there, the shadow at the edges of his vision and the numbness in his fingers and in his head whenever Weber decided that Vivaldi was still the best thing since sliced bread, but it hadn’t been so…so threatening lately.

He hadn’t called the Samaritans hotline in nearly a month either.

Most of the contractions you’ve been using aren’t even words. I’m beginning to think you might be able to actually talk to Canning!

?

The guy you smacked into a window.

It talks?

Sometimes.

I cud txt him? Dont have many deth-thret emotes tho :(

There was a long pause. Darren liked to think he’d managed to make Jayden laugh. He needed it, judging by last Thursday’s hot chocolate hair-care treatment. Needed a laugh more than Darren did, maybe, because at least Jayden had a reason to be unhappy. Nobody was pouring coffee on Darren’s head.

“Seriously, man, stop grinning, you’re freaking me out,” Paul grumbled next to him, and Darren leaned over to eye his drawings.

“You have a thing for boob jobs? They’re like…perfectly round.”

Paul smacked him; his phone buzzed, and Darren retreated. He liked Mondays. No orchestra practice on Mondays, and he got to start his day with physics. Another symptom of being a bit messed up, maybe, but Darren was willing to live with the physics thing.

I don’t think Canning can read, but thanks anyway.

On a whim, Darren decided to prolong his good streak and maybe test out the water with Jayden a little. Maybe dating was a bad idea, but a friend who didn’t think he was surgically attached to his violin could only be an improvement. U busy after skool?

School, Jesus. And no, why?

Come and nerd w/ me. I need nu music sheets n bookstore has a section 4 play scripts u shud check it out

There was another long pause. This time probably because he’d flustered him. That was attractive too, the way he’d go some colour between white and purple (depending on the degree of flustering) and mumble or stutter out a response. Usually starting with ‘um’ or a not-so-discreet chewing-on-his-lip action. Which was a bit unfortunate, all things considered, because Darren kind of wanted to kiss him when he did that, and Jayden would probably run a mile.

There was a thought. Had anyone ever shown any interest in Jayden before? Suddenly, Darren was willing to bet on ‘no.’

Okay. Where?

Texting filtered out too much. Meet outside ur skool? My round at newsagents ;)

He slid his phone back into his pocket as Miss West read out the homework assignments and steeled himself for Paul’s inevitable interrogation.