Stan and Zack were still eating when a figure in a dark coat and metal braces approached the table with the purposeful stride of someone who had been waiting for this moment.
Quinn Carter.
Stan saw him coming and his expression flattened into something between resignation and mild irritation, the look a man gets when he sees a mosquito he thought he'd already swatted.
Quinn Carter was, in every measurable sense, a problem that refused to go away. The history between them was simple and ugly: both of them had once pursued Lily Xavier. Quinn had lost, not because Stan had been particularly impressive, but because Quinn was, to put it charitably, below average in the looks department, and Lily had preferred Stan's face to his. What neither of them had realized at the time was that Lily had been using them both as placeholders. She'd chosen Stan over Quinn, then promptly dumped Stan for Leo the moment a better option presented itself.
