Read Rhapsody on a Theme for Free Online Page B

back over Darren’s shoulder and hug him briefly, shifting forward enough to kiss the back of his head. Darren mumbled a vague greeting, or something like it, but generally ignored the attention again, and Rachel rolled her eyes at them.
    “You’re both disgusting,” she opined and frowned. “When are you having babies?”
    “When one of us gets pregnant, you’ll be the first to know,” Darren muttered, still watching the telly intensely. Jayden began to suspect he had a bet on with Paul or something.
    “I like to think the doctor would be the first to know,” he said.
    “No, because frankly, if either of us need a pregnancy test kit, she’s buying it,” Darren pointed out, and Jayden shrugged.
    “Okay, that seems fair.”
    “Can I be a godmother?” Rachel piped up again, settling deeply into the armchair.
    “No,” Darren said.
    “Why?”
    “You might make our baby asexual.”
    Rachel bristled. “ So ?”
    “ So , if I’m going to have kids, I’m also going to have grandkids to get back at my kids,” Darren retorted, and Jayden laughed. “I am willing to negotiate and name one Rachel after you. Or Twiggy.”
    “I’m not having a kid called Twiggy,” Jayden objected as Rachel hit Darren with a cushion.
    “Fine, then I’m breaking up with you.”
    “Yeah, okay then,” Jayden said, kissing the crown of his head and pushing Rachel’s cushion away. “Stop murdering my boyfriend.”
    “Ex-boyfriend, you heard him!” Rachel insisted. “And I’m not twiggy ! I put on weight over Christmas!”
    “Where?”
    “On my boobs, look.”
    “No!” Jayden cried, covering Darren’s eyes. “He’s bisexual! He might be turned!”
    “It’s not turning if he’s already bisexual,” Rachel sniped.
    “You’re both freaks,” Darren said, and she launched out of the armchair to attack him; Jayden dodged out of the tangle, climbing off the sofa entirely and perching safely on the stairs, out of reach for the moment.
    “Don’t bruise him too hard, he goes back to work tomorrow,” he said. “They might ask questions.”
    “Doubt it,” Darren grumbled, escaping from her assault and sitting on the piano stool to massage his shoulder with one hand. “Some of the day shift wouldn’t notice if you came in with your head cut off.” His phone beeped on the sofa, and he eyed Rachel warily. “Jayden? Little help here?”
    “All right, all right,” Jayden muttered, climbing down and snatching it up. Oi frizzy wat u up too??? “It’s Paul.”
    “What’s he want?”
    “Asking what you’re up to.”
    “Being murdered.”
    He’s fine , Jayden replied. Rachel’s attacking him.
    hi jade! Jayden scowled at the nickname. i gots news for u bitchez!
    “What’s he say?” Darren asked.
    “He has news.”
    “What news?”
    Jayden dutifully asked.
    And nearly dropped the phone.
    “Holy shit ,” he said.
    “What?”
    “Ethan.”
    “What about Ethan?”
    Jayden reread the text, asked if Paul were kidding, and was told it was totes legit!
    “Jayden?”
    “He’s getting married .”

Chapter 5
    Their bedroom was up in the eaves: a wrought-iron double bed with a sinfully thick mattress under one skylight, and a second-hand, stupidly big TV pilfered from Darren’s parents’ divorce under the other. Darren was usually a fairly moral, ethical person, but when it came to pinching electronics from his warring parents, all that went out of the window. Jayden wasn’t complaining. It meant epic evening telly, and when Darren got bored, epic background noise for sex. (The Lord of the Rings theme had become an erotic composition in Jayden’s head because of Darren’s low boredom threshold. Watching The Hobbit films in the cinema had been unbearable .)
    When Darren’s mobile rang on the side that evening, Jayden had just settled in to watch one of his favourite films, and he flung an arm out blindly to fumble for it, presuming—correctly—that it wasn’t anyone vitally important or unknown to