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!
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Luna had always considered herself a go-getter. She loved an interesting opportunity almost as much as she loved toaster strudels, and often volunteered for things no one else wanted to do because her adventurous nature craved excitement and newness.
But there was a difference between that and romance. In theory, it seemed easy enough: approach target and say, “Will you go out with me?” Simple. A no-brainer. Except that the amount of courage it took to put one’s heart on the line was more than Luna stored in her body at any given moment, and she was so used to being made fun of that vulnerability had long ago ceased to be easy for her. What if he said no? What if he laughed at her? What if he side-eyed the other guys and said sorry, he really liked her as a friend, but he’d never once thought of her that way.
No, she couldn’t do it. She wasn’t like Victoria and Jasmine, who could boldly go after boys and get what they wanted because they were pretty and thin and had backbones made of steel. She could make phone calls without breaking a sweat, she could design her own quinceañera invites, she could even figure out College Algebra if she reread the same passages in her textbook enough times, but she couldn’t just walk up to Patrick Ashley and casually ask him if he wanted to—
“Luna, are you okay?”
She looked up from her lunch tray. Patrick sat across from her, holding a half-eaten protein bar. Protein bars were the only thing he ever ate at school. He claimed not to have much of an appetite in the middle of the day, which Luna could not relate to whatsoever. “I’m fine,” she said.
“You’ve barely touched your food.”
She couldn’t help smiling at that. Patrick was observant in a way that many guys weren’t, in tune with his feelings and the feelings of others, which made his poetry all the better. It was one of the many things she appreciated about him. “Just stuff on my mind, I guess. Victoria’s sending in an audition video for Juilliard’s Pre-College Program this month, and if she gets in then she’ll be leaving for New York at the end of the school year. I’m worried about how Duke’s going to take it.”
“You really care about Duke, huh?”
“He’s a bigger softy than he lets on. A guy who gets along with his mother as well as he does is not made of stone.”
Patrick took another bite of his nutrition bar. “I get it. I’m close to my mother, too. Dad says he doesn’t understand me…”
“Why’s that?”
“My older brother is more of a guy’s guy, if you know what I mean.” He rolled his eyes. “He plays football and likes to fix up cars and has posters of bands and models on his bedroom wall. Like an 80’s cliché. He and Dad get along just fine. And then there’s me, thin and weak and more interested in words than sports. I guess I’m just not manly enough for him.”
“Which is totally ridiculous! Writers were considered some of the manliest men out there not that long ago.” Luna shoved two curly fries into her mouth, angry on Patrick’s behalf. “Girls would swoon over them like rock stars!”
“I appreciate you trying to make me feel better, but I think my relationship with Dad might be a lost cause.”
“Maybe you two can find some middle ground in the future,” she said, thinking of Dimitri and his father, who were tentatively patching up their own relationship. As much as Dimitri tried to be the opposite of James, they were alike in inescapable ways. The same could have been true for Patrick and his dad.
“Or,” Patrick said, “I can introduce Dad to you! You’re both huge Mariners fans so you’ll have plenty to talk about.”
It was true: Luna loved baseball. She and her dad were season ticketholders. She blushed at the thought of being introduced to Patrick’s parents, though. “If you do that, he’ll think I’m your girlfriend or something,” she said with a laugh, hoping to hide how ideal that situation would be for her.
Patrick stared at her. “Right, so do you want to be?”
She stared back. “What?”
“My girlfriend.”
Silence. Somewhere in the back of Luna’s mind there were fireworks, a cheering studio audience, and a general sense of victory, but her shock would not allow that part of her brain to communicate with the rest of it. An uncomfortable amount of time passed in which neither of them said anything before Patrick’s cheeks reddened and he looked down at the table. “Unless you don’t—”
“I am!” Luna blurted out. “I do!” Heat rushed to her face. “I would like to be your girlfriend.” Oh goodness, to think she had teased Sebastian for his own disastrous lack of game. Unless she did some serious leaving out of information, her friends were going to eat her alive when they heard about this.
A bashful smile took over Patrick’s face. “Cool,” he said.
“Cool,” Luna agreed. And neither of them said anything else for the rest of the lunch period.
~*~
At the end of the day, Luna spotted Victoria on the school’s front lawn and all but tackled her from behind. “Who the fuck—?”
“He did it!” she cried, and Victoria’s rage melted at the sight of her ecstatic face.
“Who did what?”
“Patrick asked me to be his girlfriend!”
Victoria screamed with delight and they both jumped up and down excitedly, clutching each other’s arms. “It’s about bloody time!” Duke had emerged from the building by then, and Victoria grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into their jumping circle. “Patrick Ashley finally asked Luna out!”
“Yes!” Duke pumped his fist into the air. “Marcus owes me ten bucks!”
“Duke!” Luna cried.
“What? He said it wouldn’t happen until after winter break. I voted in your favor.” He threw his arm around her shoulders and gave her a noogie. “Luna’s got a boyfriend, Luna’s got a boyfriend!” he sang.
Luna shoved him away, but she couldn’t stop laughing. She didn’t think her heart had stopped pounding since lunch. Was she always going to feel this nervous and happy and excited from now on? How was she supposed to function as a human being in this heightened state of emotion? How would she ever focus on her classes again, knowing she would see Patrick in between them? And more importantly, how was she supposed to act around him now? Did they hold hands? Walk each other to their classes? Go on dates? Kiss? All of the above?
“Aww, Dimitri’s here already,” Victoria whined as she scanned the line of cars pulling up to the school. She gave Luna a quick hug. “We’ll talk more about this online?”
“Of course. And do not tell Dimitri! I want to make the announcement myself!”
Victoria kissed Duke goodbye and ran off to the pickup line. They waved at Dimitri as she climbed into his Firebird. “So when are you inviting Patrick over to meet the gang?” Duke asked as soon as they were gone.
Luna hadn’t thought about it. She was trying to take things one step at a time, and introducing Patrick to her inner circle felt simultaneously like throwing him to the sharks and bringing a new fiancé to a family engagement. She decided to stall. “If he’s going to be my birthday party escort then he’s going to meet everyone eventually!” she said with a weak laugh.
Duke gave her a sour look. “V’s right, you are a coward.”
Luna punched him in the arm. “I am not! It’s just all very… new. Can’t I have him to myself for a while before I share him with everybody else?” As much as she’d wanted to gush over Duke and Victoria’s relationship, she had given them privacy when they started dating over the summer. She wanted to learn the ropes first, see if this thing with Patrick was going to last beyond the next couple of weeks. As excited as she was about having a boyfriend and being a girlfriend and going on dates and being romantic with a guy, she was acutely aware of the fact that this was a high school relationship. And high school relationships were notorious for their brevity. Her friend Xiomara had been desperately in love with one of the jazz band guys last year, talked of nothing else for months, and then dumped him after two days of dating, claiming she got bored.
“Sure,” Duke drawled, rubbing his offended arm. “You play it safe. We’ll try not to give you too much shit in the meantime.”
“Thanks,” Luna said with a pout.
“Where’s Patrick now?”
“He had a meeting with the lit magazine. They put together an anthology every year, so they’re wading through a mountain of short stories and poems right now.”
Duke grinned. “Why don’t you join the lit mag? You can spend more time with him and it’ll look good on your college apps.”
Luna blushed and swatted at him some more. “I’m already on the yearbook committee! Any more extracurriculars and it’ll cut into my gaming hours.”
“Sure,” he said, then stepped out of range of her fist. “There’s Mom. Catch you later! And congrats on the boyfriend, Mrs. Ashley!”
Luna waited until he’d gone before devolving into a fit of giggles. Congrats on the boyfriend. Words she’d never thought she’d hear—at least not during her high school career. But here she was: Luna Cruz, fifteen years old, sixteen in a few more months, a sophomore with a boyfriend. And perhaps soon she’d be able to say she’d had her first kiss, too…
Author’s Note: It’s okay, Luna. I didn’t know how to be a girlfriend at your age either.
We’re two weeks away from the Trainwrecks S2 Mid-Season Q&A! Remember to submit your questions before May 16th!
WHOOHOO, go Luna!!!! She may not have game, but she just set the record for how fast anyone's gotten into a relationship so far 🤣. I can't wait to see what everyone says on Wednesday...