Welcome to Trainwrecks, a free-to-read fiction serial that follows a group of six Seattle-adjacent friends from the year 2004 to the year 2015. Join Luna Cruz, Sebastian Velasquez, Dimitri and Victoria Hale, Duke Kingston, and Jasmine Nolan as they stumble their way from adolescence to adulthood, falling in love, making mistakes, overcoming their pasts, and staying together through it all.
For series introduction, character profiles, relationship charts, and general orientation, check out the Table of Contents!
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Duke slouched in his chair, legs shaking back and forth restlessly. It was first period music theory, and he’d had just about enough of chord progressions and scales—had in fact been sick of them since November, which did not bode well for his future in Remington’s music track. He just wanted to play guitar, not think about the science behind it.
Photography, on the other hand, had snuck up on him. During his spring break in Colorado, when Duke hadn’t been snowboarding, he’d been wandering around Crested Butte, camera in hand, snapping shots of one breathtaking landscape after the next. He’d brought the film to be developed at school, and his photography instructor had praised his work, even suggested he might have a natural aptitude for it.
But was it enough to switch majors from music to visual arts? He was a freshman. It would be the perfect time to make a change. The only downside of dropping music was he’d no longer be guaranteed to have a class with Victoria unless she stuck with French.
His gaze drifted over to her empty desk. She was late. She was never late.
Ms. Deerhorn walked in a minute later, silencing the class with her very presence. With over twenty years of experience under her belt, no one dared try to usurp her authority in the classroom, and those who had tried at the beginning of the year had been dealt with swiftly. “Good morning, everyone.” She whipped open her attendance roster, lifted her head, and began to count them all silently. “Ms. Hale is out sick today. Would anybody be willing to take notes for her?”
Duke’s hand shot into the air.
“Thank you, Mr. Kingston,” she said, and he ignored Marcus’s snicker behind him.
Duke may have hated music theory, but Victoria didn’t, so he would actually have to pay attention to the lesson that day. Bummer.
~*~
The Hales resided in a lovely townhouse on the other side of Lake Washington. Situated on a hill, as many places in the Seattle area were, it commanded a view of the water on one side and a view of downtown on the other. Duke had been there only once before to drop off his bad mood mix CD in their mailbox. He’d never gone inside. He wondered, with no shortage of anxiety, if Mr. Hale was home.
“I’ll be back in an hour,” his mother said as he climbed down from the truck. “My informant told me there is a beautiful vase in exactly the style I want for the master bath at an exotic furniture store downtown.”
Duke didn’t think they needed another vase, but he wasn’t about to deny his mother her life’s pleasures. He walked up the front path, comparing the townhouse before him to the drab, colorless one-story house Dimitri and his mother lived in. A grand piano and a chandelier were visible through a large picture window. The façade looked new, scrubbed clean, and what little lawn they had was perfectly manicured. It annoyed him for some reason.
He rang the doorbell, and moments later, he found himself staring down at a stout, gray-haired white woman with muscular arms. This must have been the housekeeper, Linda. “Hi,” he said, “I’m Victoria’s classmate, Duke…”
Recognition flickered across her face. “Ah, you’re the Kingston kid! Heard a lot about you.” She arched an eyebrow. “Not much good, I’m afraid.”
Figures. “I brought her notes from school,” he said while the housekeeper looked him up and down.
“Come on in, then. I’ll go make sure the princess is decent.” She turned and waddled inside, and Duke stepped through the door, searching the entryway to make sure they weren’t a shoes-off-in-the-house family. While Linda disappeared upstairs, he examined his surroundings. Immediately before him was a dining area, and beyond that, a full kitchen with a large island in the middle. To his right was the piano he’d seen through the window, sheet music scattered across the top of it. Next to the stairs, which led both up and down, was a large living room filled with elegant new furniture that had been arranged around a massive fireplace. In front of the fireplace sat the ugliest cat he’d ever seen, fluffy and white and staring at him with wide-set eyes.
The housekeeper reappeared on the stairway. “She’s still a little feverish, so I made her stay in bed. You can come up.”
Duke’s heart beat a little faster. He had not been expecting admission to Victoria’s room of all places. He tried not to look as freaked out as he felt as he followed Linda upstairs. Just past the landing was a long hallway. The room facing the back of the house was closed, but Linda led him in the opposite direction, past a bathroom, towards the room facing the front yard. The walls were decorated with framed photos, which Duke slowed down to inspect.
A very young, short-haired Victoria at a piano recital. A preteen Victoria and her father in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Victoria surrounded by six beautiful, older Indian women, all dressed in saris.
And then he had crossed the threshold into her bedroom. Victoria sat up on a four-poster bed with gauzy beige curtains, dressed in a long skirt and an oversized sweater with ribbons along the sleeves. Directly across from the bed was a big screen television, and beside that, a large stereo. But those were the only modern things in the room. The rest of the interior had been done up in a pink, brown, and beige rococo style that made some of the rooms in his house look tame.
“Duke,” Victoria said, followed by a mild cough that she hid behind her sleeve. “What are you doing here?”
Duke, furiously swatting away the idea that his mother and Victoria would adore each other, turned to face her. She did look sick, her green eyes narrowed in pain, cheeks flushed. “Notes,” he said. He held out the bundle of paper he’d had tucked under his arm. “I took the music theory and French ones, Marcus got history for you, and Luna did biology. Not sure who took the others, but I volunteered to deliver, so…”
A wan smile brought the light back into her eyes. “That’s very kind of you.” She slid forward and grabbed the bundle from him.
Duke looked back at the housekeeper for signs of disapproval, but she’d vanished. He pointed at the TV. “What are you watching?”
“Oh, just some cooking show. Not much on during the day besides soap operas, talk shows, and medicine adverts.” She coughed again. “I apologize. I didn’t expect to wake up sick this morning, otherwise I would have messaged you and Luna last night.”
Duke fidgeted. “It’s fine. Just feel better,” he said lamely.
Victoria’s smile widened. “Are you leaving straightaway? My father’s working late tonight. It’s been a bit boring—no offense to Linda. She does keep busy.”
He slid his school bag off his shoulder. “Mom ran off to buy furniture, so I have some time to entertain Your Royal Highness.” For a split second, he didn’t see any seating options besides the bed and panicked at the thought of sitting next to her, but then he spotted a cushioned chair tucked under a vanity and all but dove for it.
“Did I miss anything interesting today?” Victoria asked him.
“Interesting? At Remington?” She was the most interesting thing in that school. “Hand me the remote. I get enough cooking lessons from my dad.”
They were halfway into their second episode of Scrubs when Duke texted his mother not to come back in a hurry. He watched Victoria, who watched the television, laughing between feeble coughs.
If he caught her cold, well, it would have been worth it.
Author’s Note: Have some pure, unadulterated fluff. As a New Years gift.
If you’re going out on the 31st, then be safe and have a wonderful time! I’d better see you all back here on the 1st. Don’t die. I love you. <3
The fluff is appreciated <3
*keyboard smash* THIS WAS SO CUTE
(but like, what happens when James comes home? 😶)