Welcome to Trainwrecks: Season 2 (2005-2006)! If you haven’t read Season 1, please start there! Trainwrecks is 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 Episode | Table of Contents | Next Episode
Of all the days to have to dance, Duke thought as he sat on the floor of Mrs. Cruz’s dance studio. School had been damn near unbearable with all the flowergrams, balloons, and teddy bears flying around. But at least no one had tried to give him anything. The lingering stench of his breakup with Victoria must have kept any would-be admirers away—either that or Luna had told the female student body to not even think about it. The thought of her haunting the flowergram table, growling at anyone who tried to get one for him made him smirk. She totally would.
Luna stood near the front of the room with Patrick Ashley, whose perfect waltzing posture had put everyone but Jasmine and Sebastian to shame. Damn theatre kid. But Luna looked happy, which was the whole purpose of the big, fancy party. She’d been hanging out with Patrick at least once a week outside of school, and he’d been sitting with them at their table since the start of the semester. A few times, Duke had looked around to see whether Victoria had laughed at something Patrick said, only to remember she was in the second lunch period.
From his vantage point on the floor, he could see Dimitri standing in a corner with his arms crossed, glaring at Luna and Patrick. One of Luna’s art class friends—Xiomara, was it?—couldn’t stop sneaking glances at Dimitri while Seb waltzed her around the dance floor. And standing with her back against the studio’s glass storefront was Victoria, dressed in a long red skirt and a brown cardigan with a pink head scarf tied under her dark brown waves. Of course she’d dressed up for Valentine’s Day. She loved Valentine’s Day.
“Duke, you’re up,” Jasmine called to him. Luna and Patrick had moved to the side, heads bent together, lost in their own little world. Duke had to admit it was kind of sweet. Patrick doted on her, always kissing her hand or her cheek before they parted ways. Not only had he gotten her a flowergram, but he’d also written her a poem to go along with it. Romantic, starry-eyed Luna deserved a guy who went all out for her like that.
He stood from the floor and walked over to Jasmine. “I don’t need to be here,” he grumbled.
Jasmine’s mouth twisted to the side. Even pulling faces, she was still beautiful. “Quit whining. Arms up.” Duke rolled his eyes and waited for her to step into his arms. “And now you’re going to—whoa!” She nearly fell over as he started waltzing her around his classmates, not missing a single step. She looked up at him in surprise.
“Mom made me learn,” he explained.
“Wow, look at Duke go!” Marcus cried.
Duke turned abruptly and walked away, leaving Jasmine hanging and their friends applauding his miniature performance. He didn’t dare cast any glances in Victoria’s direction.
A chair had opened up at one of the tables near the back of the room, and he dropped into it with a sigh. Mrs. Cruz had put out snacks for the kids since some came straight to the dance studio from their extracurricular activities. Duke grabbed a handful of chips and ate them one at a time, glaring at the wall. Now that he’d demonstrated his dancing ability, he only had to wait until Seb and Jasmine finished teaching everyone else the basics, and then came the actual learning of the group waltz. Duke had been partnered with Luna’s friend Kaylee, if only because they had three classes together now that he was in the visual arts track.
The switch to being a visual arts major had been the highlight of Duke’s semester. No more scales and chord progressions, no more sucking the fun out of music. Just color theory and perspective and developing a better understanding of how to capture the world around him. He’d known he liked photography, but now he was starting to love it.
“That was impressive.”
His heart leaped into his throat. Victoria stood not-quite next to him, picking a chocolate chip cookie from a plastic tray. Duke dusted the chip crumbs from his hands. “Not really.”
“You made it look easy,” she said.
He stared straight ahead. “It’s just a waltz.”
In his peripheral vision, he saw her linger, as if she wanted to say something more. Then she turned and walked away, and he slouched over the table, laying his head on his folded arms. He was glad Luna had made peace with her. They were good friends, and not talking to her had obviously been eating away at her. But Duke wasn’t ready to make peace. He could be civil to Victoria for his friends’ sake, but there would be no more private online chats, no texting, no heartfelt conversations. He’d let her into his heart once and she’d stomped all over it, stabbed him right where it hurt the most. It wasn’t something a person forgot overnight. Not when every time he tried to fall asleep, all he heard was her saying, Dimitri was right. This isn’t going to work.
If it wasn’t going to work, there was no point in bothering. Not when she was probably moving to New York at the end of the school year anyway.
“Hey Duke.”
He looked up and found Xiomara leaning back against the table. “Uh, hey.”
“Do you know who that guy dancing with Luna’s brother is?”
Duke turned around. Dimitri had Sebastian in his arms, being completely uncooperative by trying to tango with him. “That’s Dimitri. He’s Victoria’s older brother.”
Xiomara wrapped a dyed-black strand of hair around her finger. “Is he single?”
Duke narrowed his eyes at her. “He’s 20.”
“Oh really?” Her smirk widened into a full-blown smile.
Duke opened his mouth to warn her that Dimitri was a psychopath and that she probably shouldn’t be flirting with legal adults, but then he decided he didn’t have the energy to argue and went back to his brooding. Xiomara could learn on her own.
To his delight and dismay, it took the entire two-hour lesson just to teach everyone the basics, which meant they’d have to wait until Thursday to start learning the group waltz, by which time half of them would have forgotten the regular waltz. He’d fake sick and blow the whole thing off if the party didn’t mean so much to Luna. He was about to join her and Patrick outside when someone grabbed him by the coat and dragged him backwards, into the dance studio’s office where Mrs. Cruz’s computer, desk, and safe were. “What—!”
“Shh.” It was Jasmine who’d done the dragging. Dimitri stood a respectable distance away from her. “We need to talk.”
“About?”
“Patrick Ashley.”
Duke fixed his coat. “What about him?”
“He’s gay.”
He waited for one of them to break into a grin and say, “Just kidding!” but their faces remained equally grave. The best he could come up with was a skeptical, “No he’s not.”
Jasmine looked out the office’s glass window, and Duke followed her gaze across the dance floor, outside to where Luna and Patrick were laughing together. “Yes, he is.”
“How do you guys even know?”
“If you weren’t so tragically straight, you’d be able to tell,” Dimitri said.
Duke pointed at Jasmine. “What about her?”
“I’ve kissed a couple girls in my time, but this isn’t about me.” She put her hands on her hips. “The point is, Luna is dating a guy who is either using her as a beard or hasn’t figured out he’s in the closet yet.”
“Which at your age is entirely possible,” Dimitri said.
Duke glared at him. “Aren’t you and Luna still fighting?”
“Yes. But see—and you might find this hard to believe—I’m not the kind of asshole who wants to watch her get her heart broken just so I can say serves you right!”
Duke wiped a hand over his face. “Fuck. Well, thanks for ruining my night.” He took in a deep breath and let it out in a frustrated sigh. “What do you want me to do?”
Jasmine bit her bottom lip. Dimitri rubbed the back of his neck. “Honestly? We don’t know,” she said. “Dimitri and I—”
“—are bastards,” he cut in.
Jasmine rolled her eyes. “I was going to say that we aren’t always capable of handling things delicately, but yes, we are bastards.” She put a hand on Duke’s shoulder. “But you’re a good person, and you’re Luna’s best friend, so we’re giving you this knowledge and letting you decide what to do with it.”
In some other situation, Duke, as the youngest member of the friend group, would have felt honored to be entrusted with an important task by the eldest two. But this wasn’t any old task. Luna’s happiness was at stake. “You guys are absolutely sure?” he asked.
“He blushed the entire time Sebastian was coaching him. And when he helped move his arms, he got even redder,” Dimitri said.
Duke groaned and kicked the wall. “He’s on my contact list. I’ll message him later.” He moved his index finger between Dimitri and Jasmine. “But if you guys are just setting me up for an elaborate prank, you’re dead to me.”
“I wish we were,” Jasmine lamented. She patted him on the shoulder on her way out of the office. “Good luck.”
Duke made a noise of affirmation as Dimitri brushed past him. He could see Luna outside waving goodbye to Patrick, both arms over her head, totally carefree.
This was going to suck.
Author’s Note: Jasmine should have bet money on it while she had the chance. Girls aren’t the only ones who can’t resist Sebastian’s charm.
Alas, poor Luna. And poor Victoria, too. Duke’s walls must be feeling pretty impenetrable right now.
Aww poor Luna! She does deserve all the happiness 😭 good thing she has such great friends
Oh nooooooo.
Alas, falling for a queer guy is a sensitive nerd girl canon event, I fear TT_TT (speaking with history that includes a bi man and two trans women ^^" )