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!
Author’s Note: We’ve reached the end of Trainwrecks: Season 1 (2004-2005). As a heads up, this episode is twice as long as usual, so grab a snack and make yourself cozy before reading!
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July in Seattle could go one of two ways: almost warm and sunny, or jacket weather and gloomy. Much to everyone’s delight, on the day of Duke, Sebastian, and Dimitri’s combined birthday party, the sun came out with enough force for the temperatures to reach almost warm. Luna tilted her face up to the light as she stepped out of the Kingstons’ mini mansion and into the backyard in search of Duke.
Several of Sebastian’s school friends splashed around in the pool while Mr. Kingston, in an apron far too small for his large frame, grilled an array of meats. Luna’s mouth watered as she walked past him. She’d been dieting since March, but Mr. Kingston’s food was a temptation she couldn’t resist.
She found Duke with Marcus and their mutual friend Scott, laughing and plucking away at his guitar. He wore a much thicker jacket than the weather required. “You’re not going to get in the pool?” she teased him.
“Hell no!” he cried. He moved over so Luna could sit next to him. “I don’t even know why we have a pool. It’s never warm enough here to swim.”
“Says you,” Marcus shot back.
“Yeah, and my opinion’s the one that matters!”
Luna surveyed the backyard. Sebastian sat on the edge of the pool with his feet in the water, chatting with the swimmers. Dimitri stood in the shade of a palm tree with his mother, who hated crowds and didn’t know how to cope with large groups of adolescents. He was in a good mood despite not knowing anyone else at the party, which Luna was glad for. With all the complaining he’d done, she’d worried he wouldn’t enjoy himself.
Duke elbowed her in the ribs. “You like some food?”
Luna took a second to translate his pidgin. “Yes please.” Then she remembered her reason for sitting next to him in the first place, and an innocent smile spread across her face. “Victoria isn’t here yet, right? I haven’t seen her.”
Duke narrowed his eyes at her. “Uh-huh.”
She whacked him on the shoulder in sympathy. He grunted and got up to fetch them both some food. Poor guy had no idea what he was in for.
Suddenly, Dimitri appeared at her side. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” he asked.
Luna followed his line of sight to her unsuspecting brother. “Sebastian’s a little too close to the pool?”
Dimitri smiled. “You get me.”
“Should I do it or you?”
He rolled his shoulders and cracked his knuckles. “I’m feeling restless.”
Luna grinned, but she didn’t stop him as he started off in Sebastian’s direction. “You’re the worst!”
“Is that your boyfriend?” Marcus asked.
Luna, who had almost forgotten Duke’s friends were there, felt herself blush to the roots of her hair. “No! He’s just a friend.”
“Then why’s your face all red?”
Luna waved her hands in front of her. “Really!” She should have known something like that would happen. Remington was a close-knit community. For the first half of their freshman year, it had been assumed that Duke and Luna were a couple until word got around that they weren’t. Their classmates were bound to make assumptions if they saw Luna comfortable with another guy—especially a guy they didn’t know.
She was saved from further excuses by the tremendous splash made by Sebastian falling into the pool. The swimmers burst into laughter and cheers. Dimitri, who had wisely moved out of splashing range, surveyed his work with satisfaction.
Duke returned with two plates of burgers and fries balanced in each hand. “It’s about damn time. I was about to go over there and push him in myself.”
Luna took her burger from him. “We’re terrible people.”
“Hey, where are our burgers?” Scott complained.
“You’ve got two legs,” Duke snapped back.
Luna snorted and slipped a fry into her mouth. Sebastian, clothes soaked and hair matted, had surfaced from the water and now held a hand out to Dimitri, requesting his help to get out of the pool. But Dimitri had not been born yesterday, and he kept his distance. Luna turned to Duke to ask him if he’d caught the latest episode of Inuyasha when she noticed he was frozen, burger halfway to his open mouth. She looked back towards the house.
None other than Victoria stood in the shade of the patio, dressed in a form-fitting, jade green summer dress that ended just above her knees and showed off her arms and neck. Her hair had been artfully styled and tumbled over one exposed shoulder in loose waves, and a flower hairpin had been tucked just above her right ear. She looked amazing. Luna was delighted. And when she saw that Duke was still gawking at Victoria, she knew she was never going to let him live this down.
Duke was not the only one who noticed her. “Damn, Victoria!” Scott cried appreciatively.
Sebastian’s friends had also fixated on her. They kept throwing looks in her direction and murmuring among themselves. But Jasmine had volunteered to be the day’s distraction, and right on cue, she sauntered out of the house in a two-piece bikini, wedge heels, and a sash wrapped around her waist, model-strutting towards the pool with her long black hair flowing freely. Almost all the guys’ heads turned in her direction. Even Sebastian and Dimitri stared. Mission accomplished, Luna thought.
Duke had lowered his burger, but hadn’t let it go, and he had the deer-in-headlights expression of a boy who was experiencing feelings he didn’t know what to do with. She leaned over and poked his arm. “You should say hi to her before someone else does,” she pointed out.
“What?”
“Go tell her she looks nice! I doubt she dressed like that to impress her brother.”
Victoria had managed to escape Mrs. Kingston’s welcoming embrace and was now headed towards her mother. She had to walk around the pool, and a few guys peeled their eyes away from Jasmine to watch her. Luna sighed and grabbed the burger and plate out of Duke’s hands. “Go now!” she hissed.
“Yeah man, if you don’t go, I’ll go,” Marcus said.
Without taking his eyes off Victoria, Duke whipped his arm out and punched Marcus in the gut.
“Oww!”
Luna gave up on him and went to greet Victoria herself. “You look incredible!” she said and squeezed her in a quick hug. The tension in her posture revealed her discomfort. Victoria wasn’t used to attention. She didn’t like it.
She flashed a quick nervous smile. “I almost didn’t go through with it, but then it’s such a warm day…”
Luna jabbed a thumb in Duke’s direction. “Try telling that to him. He thinks it’s freezing out here.”
Her comment worked like a charm. Victoria’s eyes darted past her and landed on Duke. Now that he’d been spotted, he had no excuse to hang around his friends. He stood up and made his way over.
Luna moved beside Victoria’s mom, who made no attempt to hide her interest in the proceedings. She wore an amused smirk as Duke struggled for words.
“Hi,” he said finally.
Victoria stared at the grass between his feet. “Hello.”
Duke looked at Luna. Luna made a ‘go on’ gesture with her hand. Makoto backed her up with a nod. Duke cleared his throat. “You, uh… you like some food?”
Victoria’s brow furrowed. “I like lots of food, yes.”
It took all of Luna’s self-control not to smack her forehead.
“I mean, do you want some food?” Duke clarified. “We have heaps. I think if nobody stops Dad, he’s going to cook all night.”
Victoria’s cheeks colored. “Oh! God. Yes. Food sounds terrific.”
Luna watched them walk off together, a squeal rising in her throat. Makoto did not squeal, but her smirk had widened to a grin. “Man, James is not going to like this,” she said.
But it was Dimitri who walked up to them a few seconds later, his eyes on Duke and Victoria as they strolled slowly towards the grill. “The heck is she wearing?” he asked.
“It’s called a dress. You should try one sometime,” Makoto said.
The sarcastic comment broke his concentration. Makoto knew her son well: throw out a stupid statement, and he would have no choice but to respond with a stupid comeback. “Don’t tempt me,” he said.
But though he had been successfully distracted for the time being, his expression had worried Luna. He’d looked at Duke and Victoria together the way he might have looked at roadkill, and that did not bode well. Victoria liked her brother. She listened to his advice, even if it wasn’t good advice, and Dimitri was not the type of person to hold back his opinion.
As the party went on, Duke and Victoria kept gravitating toward each other, and both Luna and Duke’s friends tried to give them as much space as possible. There was no denying that a romance was blossoming between their hotheaded classmates. Duke looked happy. Victoria looked happy. And though she was far too awkward to flirt, she laughed at all the right times, and her green eyes almost sparkled when she smiled at him.
By the end of the night, most of the guests had gone home. Only the Cruzes and the Hales remained, sitting out in the backyard around the torches Mr. Kingston had lit to ward off mosquitoes. Luna found Duke in the kitchen assembling a sandwich out of kalua pork, macaroni salad, potato chips, and hamburger buns. “How am I the fat one in this friendship?” she asked.
Duke took a bite. “I’m a growing boy,” he said around a mouthful of food.
Luna pulled out one of the bar stools tucked around the kitchen island and sat on it. “So,” she said.
“So,” Duke echoed.
“You seemed to have had a pretty good time.”
He shrugged and took another bite of his sandwich.
“Totally ditched your friends to hang out with a certain someone.”
“I didn’t ditch anybody.”
“Oh, you ditched us. If I hadn’t seen you around the yard I would have suspected you two were upstairs sucking each other’s faces off.”
Duke choked, threw his sandwich down, and lunged for a bottle of soda. Luna watched him chug, pleased at his embarrassed reaction. For such a tough guy, he was easy to tease.
She patted him on the back. “There’s no shame in wanting to kiss a girl, even if she is a girl you spent half of last year terrorizing. In fact, I’d say there’s a ninety percent guarantee that she wants to kiss you back. You might as well go for it.”
Duke lifted his head and glared at her. “I can’t just kiss her!”
“Why not?” Luna asked. His mouth screwed up and his face reddened even more. A lightbulb switched on in her head. “Ooooh,” she said, “because you don’t know how.” She gasped. “We should spend the rest of the summer watching romcoms!”
“Oh hell no!”
She grabbed him by the arm and shook him back and forth. “Come on! We can hit up the Hollywood classics! When the time comes you can hold Victoria in your arms and use your shoulder to censor the kiss for modesty!”
“Shut up!” Duke cried.
She laughed and draped her arm over his shoulder. “What the heck are you so worried about? You don’t know how to kiss? News flash: neither does she! Go at it like the dumb, blushing virgins you are!”
Duke reached behind him for his sandwich, took another bite, and chewed it with a scowl. Luna kept her arm around him. At least he hadn’t outright rejected her second suggestion, which meant he was one hundred percent thinking about kissing Victoria.
Sebastian walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bag of chips off the island. “What’s up with Duke?”
“He realized that people don’t magically gain kissing experience without kissing,” Luna said.
Sebastian’s eyebrows went up along with the corners of his mouth. “Oh!”
Duke pointed what was left of his sandwich at him. “You want me to throw your ass back in the pool?”
“Luna said it, not me.”
He trained a sinister smile on Luna. “Hey, yeah. You did say it.”
Luna pulled her arm back and slid off her stool. “Let’s not be hasty. Throwing me into the pool won’t make you feel better.”
Duke ate the last of his sandwich and stood up. “I think it will, actually.”
“But I’ve been offering you helpful advice! I don’t deserve to be thrown in the pool!” She batted her eyelashes at him, which always worked on Sebastian and sometimes worked on Dimitri.
“You’ve been making fun of me, and you know it!” Duke roared.
Luna turned and ran for the backyard where their parents sat around a patio table, but Duke was too fast for her. He grabbed her by the waist and started pulling. “Mom! Mrs. Kingston!” she screamed. They glanced at them, wholly unconcerned. Mrs. Kingston waved. And with one more shriek, Luna and Duke both went over the edge and into the water.
~*~
After successfully dunking his best friend, Duke returned to the house, still toweling himself dry. He hadn’t seen Victoria in a while, and neither had anyone else. He shivered as the cold air indoors made contact with his wet skin. A change of clothes was needed. He didn’t understand how those lunatics could be splashing around after sunset.
Upstairs, he changed into a t-shirt and a pair of baggy shorts. But when he left his bedroom, a sound from the game room caught his attention. It was Victoria, walking the perimeter of one of the billiards tables, her fingers trailing along its fuzzy green surface. She gasped when she saw him. “You startled me!”
“Didn’t realize you were up here,” he said.
Her head lowered. “I needed a break from the crowd. Introvert and all.”
Duke approached her, hands in his pockets. “I think the parents are finally wrapping up their conversations, so…”
“Ah.” She nodded. “Good.” Her arms crossed over her midriff. “Did you enjoy your combined birthday party?”
“I did.” He stopped at the other end of the table, trying to give her some personal space. Being in large crowds energized him, so he didn’t understand her introvert exhaustion, but he wanted to be mindful. “How about you? Was it fun?”
Victoria smiled. “Very.”
“Good, good…” He felt like an idiot. What was he doing? He was distracted by her legs, that was all. He’d never seen them since she usually wore tights under her school uniform.
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, almost dislodging her flower clip in the process, and sighed. She lifted her head and met his gaze. “Did you have something you wanted to say?”
Duke blinked. “Uh… no, not really…”
Her lips pursed together. “Alright then.” She waved her hand toward the door and pulled away from the table. “I’ll just go back downstairs.”
“Hold on.” He grabbed her wrist to keep her from leaving. “Are you mad at me?”
“No,” she said, but she wasn’t looking at him. “Yes? I don’t know. Let go of me.”
“Tell me why you’re mad.”
“I’m not mad!”
“Bullshit.”
She ripped her arm out of his grasp and whirled around to face him. “I’m not!” she cried. She stood there for a moment, eyes wide, brows drawn, and then gestured at her outfit. “I look beautiful today. Scott couldn’t take his bloody eyes off me, but I didn’t go through all this effort and embarrassment for him!” She crossed her arms again. “So why should I have to compliment myself?”
Oh.
Now he got it.
Duke stepped closer to her. He hesitated for only a second before he reached out, cupped her face with both hands, and raised her head so she would look him in the eye. And such stunning eyes, too, greener up close than he ever could have imagined. “You look beautiful,” he said.
It seemed there would be no time for romcoms, but how difficult could kissing be? He lowered his head and planted his mouth firmly against hers, hoping he hadn’t misinterpreted her complaint. God, her lips were soft. He drew back—though he really didn’t want to—and searched her face for any lingering annoyance, but she only stared at him, her cheeks flushed pink. “That was my first kiss,” she said, slightly dazed.
He smiled. Could she be any more adorable? “It was mine too.”
Victoria traced a circle on his chest with her finger. “Can it not be the only one?”
And because their parents were still talking, and their friends were still splashing around in the pool, and the world hadn’t ended and time hadn’t stopped, Duke kissed her again, and didn’t pull away. It was clumsy at first. Neither of them knew what they were doing. But instinct took over after a while, and his hands found their way into her hair, and her mouth figured out how to move with his. When they did break for air, his nose brushed hers with a tenderness he never would have thought himself capable of, and she looked at him with such naked adoration that he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her closer, kissed her like he wouldn’t get enough, couldn’t get enough—
“Tor, time to go!” Makoto’s voice called from downstairs.
Victoria stumbled out of his arms. The sudden absence of her was almost cruel. “I…” she stammered, red-faced, lips swollen. She took several steps towards the door, stopped, turned around, marched back over to Duke and gave him one last kiss. “Good night,” she whispered, and then she all but ran out of the room.
“Night,” Duke said weakly. He fell back against the pool table, slapped his hand against his forehead, and devolved into a fit of laughter.
Ah, life was good.
Author’s Note: Oh, to be 15 and kissed for the very first time.
Join me Wednesday for the final episode of Trainwrecks: Season 1 (2004-2005)!
Duke and Victoria at last!! Good for them :)
YES!!! Aw these kids are so dumb and adorable!!