S1 Episode 5

Duke and Victoria Are Catching Feelings

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 Kingston’s mornings started off like any other teenager’s. He woke up tired from having stayed up too late the night before, hit the snooze button on his alarm clock at least twice, then grudgingly dragged himself from the comfort of his blankets to face the day.

Then, instead of throwing on one of his favorite band t-shirts and a pair of jeans, he dressed in his maroon school uniform, complete with blazer, tie, and shiny Oxfords. He exited his bedroom, walked past a home theater equipped with everything from a vintage popcorn machine to a billiards table, descended the prom-photo-worthy staircase to a grand foyer, passed beneath an opulent chandelier into an enormous living room with picture windows showing off a manicured backyard and covered swimming pool, and finally entered the fully equipped kitchen where his mother sat on a stool, drinking coffee out of a porcelain teacup and reading the morning paper.

“You won’t believe these neighborhood association ladies,” she said to him in French. “They want to auction off their designer pieces to raise money for security cameras. Security cameras! Like there aren’t starving children living in the trailer park right across the highway!”

“You don’t have to keep going to those meetings,” he reminded her, also in French. In lieu of private lessons, his mother had established a house rule early on in his life: If he was spoken to in French, he must respond in French. He swooped in and kissed her cheek before pouring himself a cup of coffee.

“If I don’t go, they will lose their only voice of reason.” She folded the newspaper and leaned on the kitchen island, her eyes wide with excitement. “Tell me about school. How are your friends? Are you getting along with the Hale girl?”

Duke’s lip curled. “Luna will be out sick today. Marcus and Jeremy invited me to the movies this weekend. Her Royal Highness is the same as ever.” He downed his coffee in one gulp and grabbed one of the loaves of bread his father had baked the day before. “But I promised I’d try to be nice to her.”

“You should! I would very much like to be friends with her mother. Her novels are so thrilling—I’m always on the edge of my seat reading them!”

Nothing was stopping her from introducing herself to Makoto Hirashima, save for the knowledge that she was New York Times Bestselling mystery novelist Makoto Hirashima, which made some sort of difference. Duke had been raised in a shack on Oahu; even after meeting his mother’s stupendously wealthy family that summer, he didn’t quite understand the world she’d left behind with its rules and status symbols.

The only thing he knew for sure was that her aristocratic French parents had disowned her for falling in love with the “wrong person” and left her penniless and alone in Hawaii. And that made them assholes.

Duke chatted with her until she realized they were running late and shooed him to the bathroom to finish getting ready. He washed up, grabbed his messenger bag, and soon they were out the door.

~*~

His morning classes consisted of music theory (which he shared with Victoria), history (required), biology (also required), and classical guitar (which he was starting to suspect he hated). He had his digital photography elective to look forward to in the afternoon, but first he would have to survive lunch.

Upon entering the cafeteria, he saw Victoria already parked at their usual table, pouring dressing on a salad. It was a shame about her personality. Sometimes, from a distance, in certain lights, if he squinted, she could almost be mistaken for a beautiful girl. He picked up a grab n’ go deli sandwich and a bottle of Coke, then took a deep breath and marched towards the table.

Still beautiful, still beautiful, and—there was the scowl, snapping into place the moment she looked at him. “Where’s Luna?” she demanded.

“Sick.” He tossed his sandwich on the table and dropped into the seat across from her.

“Then why are you sitting here?”

“Because you said the sight of my face makes you nauseous,” he replied, to which she narrowed her eyes. They were quite startling, those eyes of hers, so green he could see them from across their music theory classroom.

Not that he’d been looking.

He pointed at her salad. “You on a diet or something?”

She speared a few leaves with her fork. “I believe in making healthy choices when they’re available. We shouldn’t eat recklessly just because we’re young.”

Duke twisted open his Coke bottle. “That’s fair.” He took a long pull of his soda. She chewed her flavored leaves and regarded him with open suspicion. Geez, this girl was uptight. “Okay,” he said, “so what’s your greatest food weakness? Something full of sugar or fat that you can’t resist.”

Victoria spent so long gathering her next bite of salad he thought she had chosen to outright ignore him. “Eclairs,” she said finally. “My father would bring me one from a bake shop around the corner whenever I mastered a new piano piece. He tried not to spoil me. If I wanted something, I had to earn it.”

“Huh.”

“What?”

“Nothing. I just assumed you being the only daughter of a divorced dad, he’d spoil you rotten.”

“Well, you assumed incorrectly.” Her posture was so straight, hair and clothes neat as a pin. One never would have guessed by looking at her that she could be so vicious. She laid her fork down and appeared to mull something over before she spoke again. “Since Luna isn’t here, may I ask you a question?”

Duke’s eyebrows lifted. Something she couldn’t say around Luna? Must have been serious. “Sure.”

She fidgeted a little in her seat. Tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “How well do you know Sebastian?”

A record scratched in Duke’s head. “Sebastian Sebastian?”

“Velasquez, yes.” She frowned.

He knew a lot about Sebastian, considered him one of his best friends besides Luna. Since he’d been taken in by the Cruz siblings, there had been sleepovers, movie marathons, birthday parties, family outings, midnight bowling, and video game tournaments aplenty. It was Sebastian who had gotten Duke interested in playing the guitar and taught him everything he knew. He was the cool older brother Duke hadn’t known he wanted.

“I’d say pretty well,” he responded slowly. “Why?”

No, it wasn’t his imagination: Victoria’s cheeks turned pink, and she picked up her fork only to lay it down again. “N-No reason. He’s close with my brother, but I haven’t spoken with him as much as the rest of you all…”

“Uh-huh,” Duke drawled. So Her Royal Highness had a crush on Seb. Interesting. Should he call her out on it and embarrass her, or give her the information she wanted? Be nice, Luna’s voice whispered in his ear like an unwanted shoulder angel. He scowled. “Seb’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet,” he said. “He puts up with me and your shithead brother, so it’s obvious he’s got the patience of a saint. Loves his family. Loves dogs. But he’s not very book smart, so there’s that.”

“He seems pretty smart to me.”

“Trust me. He and Jasmine barely passed their classes last year. Dimitri had to tutor them so they wouldn’t flunk out of high school.” He took another giant bite of his sandwich.

Victoria was silent for a while, lost in her own thoughts. “Jasmine is quite beautiful.”

“They’re not together, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Color flooded her face. “Why would I be worried about that?” she squeaked.

Duke rolled his eyes and didn’t bother to answer. Either she underestimated his perception skills, or she thought she wasn’t being totally obvious. Tragic. “If you want to know about Seb, ask Luna.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t.” Her horrified expression suggested she knew Luna would sniff the crush out in seconds. “I was just curious.” She picked her fork up again. “Never mind.” She shoveled the rest of her salad into her mouth, and in that moment, she bore a strong resemblance to her mother, who ate like a wild animal and spent most of her time scowling. Duke fought back a smile.

But when he arrived at his digital photography class a while later, he found himself distracted, strangely unable to enjoy the lecture as much as usual.

Sebastian, eh…?

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Author’s Note: Gee, Duke, you should probably ask yourself why that bums you out.

Did you know the Trainwrecks cast each have their own Spotify playlists? True story! You can access them via their individual character profile pages. Playlists are period accurate, and feature a mixture of songs the characters like and songs that pertain to them. New songs will be added each season to reflect both time period and story arcs.

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