S1 Episode 2
Scheme, Scheme, Plot, Plot
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!
Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter
“And then Duke said that he won’t apologize to Victoria until she apologizes for calling him a Neanderthal, which I totally agree she should, but she got so mad that she slammed her fork down and stomped off without finishing her food. I ate the rest of it to avoid waste, but...”
Sebastian Velasquez sat on the loveseat in his family’s upstairs den, listening to his sister ramble and quietly strumming the opening chords of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on his electric guitar. Beside him sat his best friend Dimitri Hale, gnawing his way through an enormous Tootsie Roll. As usual, Dimitri wore a t-shirt—today’s featured Happy Bunny holding his ears with the caption “Not Listening”—and cargo shorts, even though it was already September, and a cold one at that. Sebastian wondered if Dimitri ran hot or if he ran cold; either way, he was grateful for his body heat, and sat as close to him as he could without being obvious.
Luna occupied the sectional sofa opposite the loveseat, dressed in her Remington uniform and surrounded by textbooks. Sebastian admired her ability to chatter about her day and study simultaneously. He could be in the quietest, most distraction free environment, and his mind would still wander away from his schoolwork. “Sounds like Duke and Victoria really don’t like each other,” he said. Since his adoptive parents didn’t make enough money to send both him and Luna to Remington, he had to get all his information secondhand.
“Which just goes to show that my baby sister has excellent taste,” Dimitri added, to which Luna rolled her eyes. He and Duke did not get along. Bullying was a love language for Dimitri, and Duke hated bullies more than anything, which led to him calling Dimitri out on his bad behavior, and Dimitri being so offended that he antagonized Duke every chance he got. It was a terrible mix, but they both liked Luna and Sebastian, so they were forced to occupy the same spaces.
Sebastian pushed his curly brown hair out of his eyes. “I bet if you were nicer to Duke, you’d enjoy his company.” Not to mention, it would make their group hangouts much more peaceful.
“You’d lose a lot of money on that bet.” Dimitri gnawed off another section of his Tootsie Roll. “So what are you going to do, Moon? Hang out with both of them separately?”
“Nope.” Luna slammed her history textbook shut and turned to them with an excited grin. “I’m going to make them fall in love with each other.”
Dimitri startled so badly he nearly knocked Sebastian’s guitar to the floor. “What?”
“It would solve all our problems and it would make them extremely happy.”
“Solve whose problems? Not mine! My sister dating my mortal enemy? Are you insane?” he cried.
“If you’re going to yell, can you sit on the other couch?” Sebastian asked.
“I don’t approve,” Dimitri continued, frantic. “And neither will Dad. He’s already decided he hates Duke for almost breaking Tor’s nose, so good luck getting past the two of us!”
Luna crossed her arms over her chest. “I’ve got an ace up my sleeve.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“Your mother.”
Sebastian fought back a smile and resumed his guitar-playing, curious to see how Dimitri would win this one. His mom loved Duke, was fond of joking that he was the son she’d never had. She’d jump at the opportunity to hook him up with her single daughter, and though Sebastian knew Dimitri wasn’t afraid to go against his mother, in the end, he’d bow to her whims because he loved her more than anyone.
“Why don’t you date Duke? He’s your best friend,” Dimitri said, his tone even more petulant than before.
“What? Eww, that’d be, like, incest.”
“Only if you were related to him, which you’re not.”
She slid her textbook into her backpack. “I’m not related to you, either. Does that mean we should date?”
Dimitri narrowed his eyes at her. “Don’t make this weird.”
“Do you really have anything to worry about?” Sebastian interrupted before the argument could continue. “Duke and Victoria have already made up their minds about each other. The chances of them falling in love are slim.”
Dimitri smirked triumphantly at that. “You’re right! Stubbornness runs in our blood. Victoria isn’t going to be won over so easily.”
Luna stood up and gathered her textbooks, then cast them as severe a look as she could manage with her cute-as-a-button face. “Don’t be so sure about that,” she said. “There isn’t a goal I haven’t accomplished yet.” And then she marched into her bedroom and shut the door behind her.
Dimitri leaned back and draped an arm over the top of the sofa, not quite touching Sebastian’s shoulders. “Should I be concerned?”
Sebastian hoped he couldn’t see his blush. “You’ve known her longer than I have. You decide.” He’d been seven years old when the Cruzes brought him home as a small, anxious foster child. By then Dimitri and Luna were already friends, having known each other for Luna’s entire life, and while Sebastian had come to understand his sister well, he still couldn’t claim he knew her best.
Dimitri snorted. “She doesn’t scare me,” he said in a tone that wasn’t as confident as it could have been. Then he shifted to face Sebastian, his knee knocking against his leg. “How about you? Any school-related frustrations you’d like to pour out to me, your number one fan, your better half, your confidante?”
Sebastian smiled. “It’s only been two days.”
“Yeah, but you go to public school. Surely someone’s been stabbed by now.” Dimitri himself had graduated high school when he was eleven years old, and his child genius circumstances had made for a very different school experience. Sebastian suspected he was trying to live vicariously through them, though he’d never admit it.
“If someone had gotten stabbed, I’d have told you about it.”
“And is Jazzy-poo having a good time?” His tone was light and airy, like he couldn’t care less, but Sebastian knew better than to fall for it.
“She’s fine,” he said. Jasmine Nolan was the school pariah, a former party girl with an infamous reputation who’d come to Jesus and turned her entire life around. She and Dimitri had a history together, one that Sebastian only knew the basics of—something about them traveling in the same circles and sleeping with the same people. He remembered Dimitri swiping his yearbook one day and asking Sebastian what he knew about her. Only that she’s the wet dream of every guy in our grade, he’d told him, and Dimitri had seemed strangely amused by that.
Sebastian had become friends with Jasmine the year before, when he’d gotten tired of seeing her eating lunch by herself and joined her at her table. She’d been wary at first but had warmed up to him once she realized he wasn’t going to make fun of her. While he’d learned a lot about her since then, her past with Dimitri remained shrouded in mystery, and whenever they all hung out together, the two of them acted like they couldn’t stand each other. But he could tell Dimitri cared about her, as much as he pretended not to.
Sebastian had to admit he was a bit jealous of their shared past. Just because he told Dimitri everything didn’t mean Dimitri returned the favor. Friendly and open as he feigned to be, there was a lot he kept from Sebastian and Luna, especially the things he did and people he saw on weekends.
Sebastian readjusted his guitar and launched into Jimmy Eat World’s recently released single “Pain”, singing while Dimitri ate the last piece of his Tootsie Roll and stared into space, lost in thought. Luna came out of her room a few minutes later, dressed in sweatpants and an Inuyasha t-shirt. “Oh, Moon,” Dimitri said suddenly, “I almost forgot: Victoria’s birthday is coming up.”
Luna gasped, her entire face radiant with excitement. “It is? When?” Luna loved birthdays. She loved birthday parties. She’d told Sebastian she wished she had more friends just so she could have the excuse of organizing more of them.
“October 9th,” Dimitri said. “Still a ways off, but I doubt she’s going to throw herself a party. You’ve seen how shy she is.”
“Say no more. We’ll have a sleepover! Just me and her and Jazz, no boys allowed.”
He smiled. “Thanks for being so nice to her.”
“You act like being nice to my alternate universe best friend is such a difficult task.” Luna turned the television and the Nintendo Gamecube on, then retreated back to the sofa with a controller in hand.
“Yeah, well. She has a hard time keeping friends. Not a lot of people are willing to hang out with such an ‘emotionally unstable’ person,” Dimitri said, making air quotes with his fingers.
“If she can’t help it, she can’t help it,” Sebastian muttered, though he’d yet to witness one of Victoria’s tantrums with his own eyes. In his limited experience, Victoria was an awkward, introverted girl who blushed when spoken to and perched on the edge of the sofa like she was too scared to relax. Sebastian knew how that felt. He’d been the same way when he first came to live with the Cruzes.
Between Victoria and Duke’s animosity, Luna’s resolve to hook them up with each other, and Dimitri’s determination to keep that from happening, their Saturday night video game session was shaping up to be more interesting than usual. And for Sebastian, who had a natural inclination towards peacekeeping, that meant he was probably going to be exhausted by the end of it.
He couldn’t really complain, though. Better an interesting and exhausting life than a boring one. His crush on his best friend was proof enough of that.
Author’s Note: It’s Happy Bunny was a popular character who appeared on t-shirts, posters, and other merchandise throughout the early 2000’s. You couldn’t walk past a Hot Topic or Spencer’s Gifts without being insulted by him.