S1 Week 9 Bonus Story: Take Two

Second Time's the Charm

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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After their family’s disastrous attempt at a Thanksgiving dinner, Victoria couldn’t help the spike of anxiety that went through her when her father announced they would all be having lunch together to belatedly celebrate his birthday. “But your birthday was on the 7^th,” she said as if the tardiness of the event was a viable complaint.

“Hence ‘belatedly,’ love,” James replied. “Your mum thought last weekend would be too soon for your brother, so she suggested this afternoon.”

The last thing Victoria wanted was to be present for another one of Dimitri’s tantrums. But seeing as he was kind enough to put up with hers, she kept her protests to herself, dressed in a tunic and leggings, wrapped a scarf around her neck, and dusted gold powder on her eyelids before following her father out the door.

A thick cloud cover blocked out the sun and painted the normally deep blue Lake Washington in shades of gray. A few tiny raindrops dotted the windshield of her father’s BMW as they crossed into Bellevue, the city like a miniature Seattle reflected on the other side of the lake. They left the car in a parking garage and emerged onto a street busy with well-dressed pedestrians. Victoria took a deep breath of cold, wet air to calm her pounding heart. She didn’t have to be nervous. It was just lunch with Dimitri and her mum.

Her mum, who she barely knew and wanted desperately to get along with.

She spotted Dimitri and Makoto standing outside a seafood restaurant. Her brother wore jeans and a t-shirt that had “I do not think, therefore I do not am” written across the chest. Her mother wore a trench coat over a red velvet skirt, a black blouse, and knee-high boots, and her ears were decorated with her usual abundance of earrings.

“Mako, Dimitri,” James greeted them upon approach.

Dimitri acknowledged him with an eyeroll. Makoto smiled as if it were something she hadn’t done in a long time and had to remember how to do. “Seafood, huh? Big spender,” she said.

“If I left it up to you, we’d be in a bar.” Her father’s voice was full of warmth and fondness and reminded Victoria that he still very much loved his ex-wife, regardless of whether the feeling was mutual. He gestured to the door. “Shall we?”