S1 Week 17 Bonus Story: And Baby Makes Four

Dimitri Becomes a Big Brother

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.

Friday posts are for paid subscribers. For $5 a month or a discounted rate of $50 a year, readers will get four bonus stories that delve deeper into each individual character’s history or the narrative’s current events. You do not need this content to understand the main story.

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October 9, 1989

Dimitri had been on plenty of exciting drives with his parents before, but this one was the most exciting of all by far.

For starters, his mother was in labor. Every few minutes she said things like “Son of a whore!” and “If you drove as fast as you knocked me up, we’d be at the hospital already!” She was not in a good mood. Dimitri had been told that childbirth was very painful for mommies, so he couldn’t blame her. From the backseat, he could see how sweaty she was, her face red and breaths coming in quick gasps.

Secondly, his dad was driving much faster than normal, and faster than anyone else on the street by far. He sailed through a red light without slowing down and swerved around someone going the speed limit. “Mako, love, I’m doing my best,” he said in what was probably supposed to be a calming voice but sounded very nervous to Dimitri.

His mom let out an agonized moan. “I don’t think we’re going to make it, Jim. This baby wants out now.”

“We are five minutes from the hospital.”

Dimitri leaned forward, but the adult seatbelt held him in place. In the rush and panic of leaving the house, they’d forgotten his car seat, which was how he’d known the situation was dire.

“Is Mommy going to give birth in the car?” he asked excitedly.

“This kid had better fucking hope not,” his mother snarled. Her head fell back against the seat. “Oh my God, if they play this Janet Jackson song one more time—”

“We’re almost there, love!”