Meet Mei, Part II

If being Kolya's friend had taught Vasya anything, it was that he who seized the moment usually either came out on top, or went down spectacularly in flames. Not exactly an easy lesson to learn for someone who approached everything with guarded caution. As he listened to her talk about her love for art, he was transfixed.

Though he'd had nothing stronger than water that evening, he was intoxicated.

"Hey, Kolya was right about you, big fella. You look like you're daydreaming about a 20-ounce T-bone and some home fries right about now."

He'd done it again. Dammit. "Um. What were you saying? About the tattoos?" he said, trying to regain some composure. If she thought he was some kind of space cadet, he might have blown his only opportunity.

"Well, you know, it's my thing. Everybody's got a passion. I'm good in the lab, maybe even great sometimes," she said, flashing a brilliant smile, "but ink is always gonna be my passion. Nothing I can do about that. Birds got to fly, rabbits got to hop, I've got to ink. Enough about me, though. What about you?"

"What about me?" Vasya felt like an elk caught in a car's headlights. This lovely girl was asking him a question, a personal question, which he had no idea how to answer.

She rolled her eyes. "Your passion. I feel like it's a good way to get to know somebody instead of the usual crap, 'who's your favorite band' or whatever. I just told you mine. Seems like a great place to start, so how about it?"

A dozen possibilities swam in his mind. The obvious choice was architecture…it was, after all, the reason he was here...but it seemed too banal. There were plenty of other things he enjoyed well enough. Hockey, a well-cooked meal, getting lost in a good book, or even the broadcasts of the Bolshoi on public access TV, his guilty pleasure. But were they really passions, or mere interests? Vasya searched his mind, seeing the sparkle in her dark eyes and the anticipation on her lips, until the right answer quite unexpectedly found itself on his tongue.

"Rats," he said. Noting her momentary confusion, he quickly added, "I mean, studying them. With Kolya, in the city. We go out at night. Like stakeouts, I guess you'd say. It's more fun than you'd think." I would have sounded more normal had I told her I study serial killers, he thought as soon as he'd spoken.

"Rats." She repeated the word as if she'd never heard it. For a split second Vasya was convinced he'd blown it and he'd never see her again, until she began to grin. "I thought Kolya was nuts for his passion until I saw some of his experiments firsthand. They're clever little bastards, just like him. But you know, when you grow up in Brooklyn, it's kind of a given that you hate rats, right? Vermin. We used to call them 'munchers' in our building." The girl grimaced, like she was recalling an unpleasant rat-related memory.

"Yeah." Vasya had seen his share of rat horrors since arriving in America…he distinctly remembered a burly Sicilian on their block telling his father You're not a true New Yorker until you've had your first toilet rat, Russki. They were just another part of life in the city to him now. "How'd you run into the Rat King, anyway?"

She laughed that throaty, velvet laugh again. "Kolya? He's only a king in his own mind. I swear those rats are smarter than he is sometimes. Speaking of, where the hell is he, anyway?"

Vasya had been so entranced with the girl, he'd forgotten all about Kolya. "I guess I better go look for him. You, um, want something to drink?" he offered.

"Just a Coke, if you can find one. I have a lab I'm teaching tomorrow morning and I can't afford to show up hung over."

Nobody seemed to notice Vasya passing by as he wandered through the cramped rooms of the frat house; they all seemed to be drunk, high, or attempting to suck out the tonsils of a member of the opposite sex. Thick clouds of smoke hung in the air along with the deep throbbing bass of electronic music. Vasya coughed; despite the stereotype of his countrymen being heavy smokers, neither of his parents smoked, and the smell had always made him slightly nauseous.

Just as he was making a mental note that he did need to call his parents soon, Vasya turned a corner next to a staircase and nearly bowled over Kolya, who'd swapped his baseball cap and do-rag for a crown of plastic flowers and some Mardi Gras beads. The coyote held a half-empty cup of beer in each hand.

"Well, if it isn't Vaseline Fetish himself," Kolya said brightly. His blue eyes shone like those of a big cat honed in on its prey, pupils dilated. He was twitching even more than usual. "Come and join the party…we're just getting started…"

Vasya had seen this side of Kolya enough by now to know what it was. Among his other vices, the coyote had a liking for most illicit drugs. Cocaine, in particular, made him more manic and unpredictable than usual, and he was showing all the signs of a contact high. "What did you take?"

"They have the good shit here, my friend." Kolya bounced on his heels, making the remaining beer slosh out. "You should get some before it's gone. Maybe you'd enjoy yourself for a change. Stop being such a stick-in-the-mud." He giggled, his voice surprisingly high-pitched.

Draping a gentle arm around his friend's shoulders, Vasya said, "You need to sleep it off. That stuff's not good for you. Come on, let me drive you home."

But Kolya pushed him away. "Don't tell me what to do. Just because you never let yourself go doesn't mean I can't."

"C'mon, Kolya, I mean it."

"Fuck you, Vasya. You always want to play it so cool, so straight-edged, and you know what? You're scared. Scared that for once, you might have a good time."

He wasn't sure what shocked him more: the hard, brittle edge he'd never before heard in Kolya's voice, even during a high, or the fact that the coyote's words were a sharp bull's eye in their accuracy. He had no idea where this sudden venom was coming from, either. "Did I do something wrong?" he said, softly but firmly. He wasn't going to back down.

Whether he had or not, though, he never had a chance to find out. The girl in the red cap was suddenly at his side, reaching out to Kolya. "Whoa, buddy. Looks like you bit off more than you can chew, am I right?" She spoke calmly, holding up one hand as if trying to tame a big cat. "Didn't I warn you about that?"

In her presence, all the wind seemed to leave Kolya's sails. His nostrils still flared and his pupils shone, but Vasya no longer felt as if a physical blow were forthcoming. "It's still early, and I'm just getting started," he whined, sounding like a small child wanting candy. Which, in a way, Vasya supposed, he was.

"Look. I promise I'll cover for you tomorrow morning if you just go home and sleep it off. Deal?" The girl held out her hand.

Kolya hesitated, but accepted the truce with a slightly limp handshake. He turned back to Vasya as if noticing him for the first time. "I could never say no to a beautiful lady," he said. Then, in a softer voice, he added "We're not finished, bratan'."

"Look, Kolya, if I did something to offend you, or said something…you'd tell me, right?"

The coyote only shot him a sullen stare as he staggered off with one arm draped around the girl's shoulder, Vasya following behind. It took a couple wrong turns before they navigated the house's corridors back to the front door.

Once they were outside, Vasya felt the cold wind like a slap across his exposed face. He shivered. "You, uh, gonna take him home?" he asked. Kolya seemed to have wilted in the cold, like a frozen rag doll. The coyote couldn't even manage a sarcastic one-liner.

She grinned. "Better. I'm gonna take him to the best campus drunk tank I know. For his safety."

Vasya thought he heard Kolya muttering something particularly obscene in their native tongue. "Fair enough," he said. He had no idea what she meant by this; he'd only been drunk himself once or twice, and it always put him right to sleep. To the coyote, he said, "Kolya, I'm sorry. For whatever I did. Let's talk about it tomorrow, eh?"

"I doubt it if he's gonna remember any of this, big fella," the girl admitted, "but that's nice of you. Coke messes with your head. I never touch it myself."

He nodded. The tableau couldn't have been stranger: himself, Kolya coming off a high, and this beautiful, mysterious girl on the front porch of a frat house at midnight. Something Kolya always liked to say was nagging at his brain…if you wait, you're only going to get the leftovers, my friend.

As she walked him to the parked Mini, he couldn't keep from staring at her. He didn't even know her name, but he knew she was smart, a fellow student, and on top of all that, a Brooklyn girl. Best of all, she wasn't twice his age, she held a conversation well enough, and she wasn't put off by his slightly awkward manner or his height. He swallowed, pulling together his nerve, as he watched her stuff the protesting Kolya into the front seat.

Now or never. "Um, would you mind if I asked you something?"

She cocked her head and flashed her dazzling smile. "As long as it's not the one about where babies come from."

He felt himself flush. "No…I mean…would you want to go out sometime? You and me, I mean?"

Gently, she put one gloved hand on his forearm. "Look, big fella, you seem like a really nice guy. Even if you're a friend of this loser here," she said, gesturing to Kolya. "I didn't mean to lead you on, but I'm not really in the dating business. Sorry to disappoint you."

Vasya looked down, studying his boots. I knew I blew it with her. "Yeah. Well. See you around, then?"

To his great astonishment, she lifted up his chin smiled, her brown eyes warm. "I didn't mean it like that. It's…it's kind of a long story." There was a glint of melancholy in there, something she didn't want to say. "But I'd be happy to tell you over a cup of coffee. There's this great place over on State, it's called…"

"Gimme Coffee," they finished in unison, and for the first time that night, Vasya smiled. "You know it, then?"

"Just the best cup of coffee in town," she said. From inside the car, Kolya groaned. "Hey. Don't mean to cut this short, but I gotta get your buddy out of here. Coke's a bitch to come down off, you know?"

Vasya pulled open the driver's side door for her. It occurred to him a moment later he still didn't have a crucial piece of information. "I never did get your name," he said, trying not to sound like a stalker.

She touched him again, and the feeling was somehow electric. "That would help, wouldn't it? I'm Mei. Mei Munro. I'm over in Wing Hall all the time; TA in microbiology. Stop by and we'll figure out the details, all right?" After a moment, she added," I meant what I said…you are a nice guy."

"Sure. Drive safe," Vasya said, "and take care of him, all right?" Even if Kolya was high and had lashed out tonight, he was still a good friend. My best friend.

As the girl…Mei…drove off into the cold night, Vasya couldn't help but think that something important had happened which he could not properly name.