Random Stuff!

Good Deeds Get Rewards

Simple short story I thought up today. 🙄

~

"Hey Duncan?"

Duncan looked up from his snack to see Quigley had sat down in front of him. He looked slightly concerned.

"Yeah, Quigs, what is it?"

"I was gonna ask you that question, actually. I know I'm not as good at noticing things as you are, but you seem kinda down lately. Anything I can help with?"

Duncan quickly dropped his attention back down to his food, and contemplated answering the question. It was a well known fact that Duncan Quagmire was not a good liar, thus it would be difficult to hide the truth from his younger brother. The unfortunate part is that Quigley was a small part of the problem he was having...

The first part of the problem is that Duncan had recently come to a personal revelation. The revelation being that he was in love with their friend Violet Baudelaire. The Baudelaire and Quagmire children had become particularly close. Their parents were close friends already, and had sent their children to a specific private school together for what they deemed was a "proper education." ("Instead of sending you to that awful Prufrock Preparatory School in the Hinterlands," They had told them.) The only exception being the youngest Baudelaire child Sunny; who was only 2 and thus didn't have to go to school yet.

Duncan had always been fond of Violet, the eldest Baudelaire, but only recently had he realized how deep his feelings went for her. She was stunningly beautiful, intelligent, kind, creative, and he could go on for hours about how wonderful she was. She was perfect.

The part that made Duncan hesitant to confide this issue in Quigley was, well, Quigley himself. While Quigley never made any direct move on Violet, they were friends too, and Quigley had a bad habit of "casual flirting." Duncan was not quite sure whether Quigley meant anything by these comments, but knowing Quigley: it was impossible for him to have not noticed Violet was appealing.

Duncan glanced back at Quigley and sighed. There was no getting around this matter...

"Promise you won't laugh?"

"Promise."

"And you won't get angry?"

"If you think it's something that would upset me, then I'll try to stay calm."

"I- I am in love with Violet..."

Quigley blinked. "Uh... And?"

Obviously, that was not enough to convey the issue.

"I don't- I mean-" Duncan took a deep breath and did what he did best: told the truth. "I don't know if it's right for me to feel this way when you seem interested in her too. There I said it, yell at me if you want, at least I'll know what you feel."

He went back eating, while Quigley processed this conundrum his brother was having.

While, yes, Quigley couldn't deny he'd made some comments to Violet. The thing is, when he'd actually tried to make a move on her, she turned down his advances. Part of him had thought that Violet might eventually see him that way, but it didn't look like it was gonna happen. Did that mean she had feelings for Duncan instead? He didn't know the answer to that.

What Quigley did know, was that guilt surged through him at the idea that he had even attempted to get with their friend that Duncan was so heartsick for.

Of course, Quigley reasoned with himself internally, he wasn't quite sure how exactly he felt for Violet anyway. He didn't know if he liked her because she was Violet or if he liked her because she was pretty. (Which, in fairness, she is.) But he could see that Duncan very much liked her for the right reasons.