Time Waits for No One

Chapter 6, Part 2 - Sweet Thing

"Damn, it's packed out tonight," Jimmy remarked as he and his favorite girls pulled up on Studio 54 in a black and tinted-out Lincoln town car, their pumpkin carriage for the evening. As with any Friday night, the front of the club was a scene, a mob of people in their finest get-ups clamoring around the doormen, trying to get entry into the exclusive and highly selective venue. "We are going to have a tiiiiime, ladies."

"I sure do hope so," Jacqueline remarked, straightening out her clothes in preparation to get out the car and be seen. "It's been such a long week, I could use the excitement."

A few moments later, they were double parked outside the club as the driver announced they had reached their destination and the trio excitedly hopped out of the car, eager to jump into the action. Jacqueline began to scan the cars out front.

"Y'all see Michael? He told us to meet here around this time."

"Girl, you always talking about some damn Michael." Jimmy scoffed, adjusting his pale blue blazer. "We can meet him inside, I'm not standing out on the corner like that waiting."

"If you say so, James Jr." Jacqueline stonewalled, long over the incessant jokes and jabs. The group walked up with Jimmy and Margie arm in arm as Jacqueline trotted behind them, happy to let her brother handle the muscle at the door. "Muscle" meaning the two white guys on a platform declaring who could and could not pass through the doors of the most coveted club in town. Confidently, the eldest began striding up to the door as though he owned it, hoping to look important enough to not need to be double-checked as a first resort. The entry men experienced that a dime a dozen each night, and wasn't having it, pointing Jimmy out in the crowd.

"Hey, where the hell do you think you're going, kid?"

"I ain't no kid; I'm DJ Jimmy Blaze. I know the D-"

"Listen, Jimmy Blaze, Jimmy Crack Corn, whoever, I don't care who you know, you ain't gettin' in tonight. Shouldn't y'all be down at Disco Fever or something?" The doorman spat, before looking Jacqueline's juvenile frame up and down. "Maybe prom? They have those in the Bronx, DJ Blaze?"

"I don't know, maybe you should ask your mother, I think I saw her on Fordham a few days ago having some real fun."

The doorman laughed in his face.

"You're funny, Blaze. You're still not getting in that powder blue shit, you look like a Temptation. Go down to the flea market and find a new outfit and try again tomorrow." the man cracked, before nodding at Margaret. "The girls can stay though, especially this one. She's kinda sexy."

Jimmy's eyes darkened with rage, but before he could react, a hand came down on his shoulder followed by a soft voice.

"Hey Brian, what's goin' on?" said Michael, stepping between Jimmy and Jackie to address him.

"Oh hey Michael! How ya doin? Nothin' man, just weeding out the stragglers."

"Stragglers?" Michael asked, cocking an eyebrow and throwing an arm around Jimmy's shoulder. "This is my cousin. He's with us. They're all with us." he explained, gesturing broadly to the Carters as well as his siblings and Stephanie, who had sprung up behind them out of nowhere.

"Oh really?" Brian stammered, too stunned to notice the scattered snickers. "Oh shit man, you should have said that at first! I thought you we-"

"We tried to tell him, MJ! He thought he was a hot shot cuz he gets to stand outside with a little goofy clipboard all night!" Jimmy said, with a proud smile, just having to get a lick in.

"Don't worry about it, B." Michael said, trying to mask a smile from Jimmy's jab. "Just don't let it happen again, will ya? We would have had to go somewhere else, and I would have hated to tell my people you were nasty with Jimmy and we needed to go home, you get it?"