Panther : Chapter 1

He was considered prey in the United States and some countries abroad. That fact was always in the forefront of James Avery Brooks Jr.’s mind. If that wasn’t enough to stay mindful of his position, the fact that Secret Service agents were constantly around did. The last thing he needed was an incident at an underage club. On the drive over, James asked himself multiple times, why was a grown-ass man going to an underage club. The answer always came back, because friends support friends. It was the way it had been for the guys, as they had been called since they were little boys. Elliott, Calvin, and JC were the core of his friends. There were others, however, the four of them did pretty much everything together. Hell, they even had their first girls together, with the exception of JC, who chose to wait. There were times the guys teased him about that decision, but James had to admire JC for standing his ground. Little did James know, that after this night he would be joining his friend in the life of celibacy. To say the evening was going to have a profound impact on the rest of his life, would have been an understatement.

Saturday nightlife, in downtown Richmond, Virginia was alive and pumping with a pulse that met you the moment you stepped out of your car, especially near the college campus. Here they had clubs for every age group and all of them seemed to be packed. As a warm-blooded young man, James could not help but notice the girls in various stages of dress. There were some in jeans, some in short dresses with legs galore, and even one or two in what he considered to be long shirts. He almost fell backwards into the club watching one of the bodies in a not so long shirt walking by. The girl looked at him and smiled as they paid their way into the club.

“Eyes are upon us,” James stated as he and his friends, Elliott, Calvin and JC, walked inside.

“I’m sure they are all checking me out,” Elliott said as he ran his hand over his chin. “The ladies can’t help themselves when all of this caramel walks into the room.”

James pushed passed Elliott, chuckling. “Try to keep in mind, a significant number of the girls in this club are under the legal age. We are not bailing you out of jail or helping you escape from a pissed off father this weekend. We are here to hang out with Calvin and JC, dance a little and have some good conversations. The girls,” he emphasized the word, “will remain here when we leave tonight.”

There was an age difference between the four friends. James and Elliott were over twenty-one and therefore could go to just about any club. While Calvin and JC had not reached that magical number. So, for this weekend, they decided to go where there was good music and no age requirement.

“Is there ever a time when you just let go? I mean look around you.” Elliott spread his arms out. “There are women…women… women everywhere.”

“There are girls…girls…underage girls, everywhere,” James replied. “Calvin and JC can get their groove on, all we are going to do is dance.”

“What fun is that?” Elliott asked.

“No jail time,” James replied as JC walked up next to him.

“I know this isn’t your kind of place, but I thought this would be a good way to release the stress of exam week,” JC shrugged. “I needed to get away from the books. You know what I mean?”

James nodded. “This semester was rough on me too. I think we all could use a break.” He glanced around the crowded club. The area was engulfed in a whirlwind sound of beats, each note reverberating through his veins and igniting an urge to move. “The music is bumping,” he began bouncing his head to the music.

“You can’t help but want to dance,” Calvin agreed.

“There’s a booth,” James pointed. “Let’s grab it, then get our dance on for an hour or two.”

After they reached the booth, it wasn’t long before a few girls walked up to them wanting to dance. The guys passed up on the first group of girls and chose to secure the booth and check out the crowd. It was important to have an idea of who they mingled with. These days, everybody had a cell phone, and pictures of them with one wrong person could cause a scandal for the administration. While other guys their age went out not really caring who they were having a good time with, the four of them carried an extra burden on their shoulders. In the political arena, reporters, bloggers or anyone wanting to make a name for themselves, were always looking to involve them in anything that could cause a scandal for the administration.

James, dressed in a black turtleneck sweater and slacks, standing all of six-two, one hundred-ninety-five pounds with intelligent brown eyes, kept that realization in mind at all times. He glanced around seeing if there were any, what they deemed to be, safe girls. Safe girls, were the ones who had just as much to lose if something were to hit social media.

It was early November. The first semester of his final year of college. Pre-law had busted his behind, but he made it, with a 4.5 GPA and a guaranteed acceptance into just about any law school he wanted to attend. It was not a curriculum one could just pass especially with his family name. In the area of law, with the last name Brooks, he was expected to excel above all others. The pressure of being the son to the chief of staff to the president of the United States would be enough on any young person’s shoulders. For James Jr., as his family called him, he had more pressure than most.

In addition to his father’s position with the government, he also happened to be the grandson of prominent civil rights attorney, Avery Brooks, nephew to attorney of the stars, Vernon Brooks, top sports agent in the country, Nicholas Brooks, and the award-winning New York real estate mogul, Nicole Brooks. To add more pressure, he was the first cousin to superstar R&B singer, Taylor Brooks. Every child in the Brooks’ family seemed to excel. The same was expected of him.

Many in the family believed he was heading towards a successful career in politics. He wasn’t so sure however, whatever he decided to do, did not matter. The expectation was that he would excel at it. Therefore, any of his extra time should be spent in the study hall preparing for finals or completing applications for entrance into law school. Instead, tonight he’d made the decision to spend the weekend hanging out with his boys.

The guys had been friends most of their lives. They met at an early age and grew up in a secure environment that taught them things normal guys would not be privy to. Their parents were not the typical, lawyers, doctors, or fire chiefs. They were who they were, and nothing could change that, and to be honest, James nor any of the guys would want that to change.

In addition to James’ father being chief of staff, Elliott Thompson was the son of Brian Thompson, the man heading up the personal protection detail for the president of the United States. Calvin Johnson Jr. was the son of Calvin Johnson, Sr. the attorney general of the United States. Then, but easily the most notable, Jon-Christopher “JC” Harrison was the son to the president. The word average was not in any one of their vocabularies.

Calvin nudged James. “Hey, there’s a group of girls over there. I’m going to ask them to dance.”

“Hold up. Do you know any of them?” The always cautious James asked. “They look hot, but they may be a little crazy.”

“The crazier the better,” Elliott grinned. “Man, will you let your guard down for a few hours? Let’s just have some fun.”

“If I remember correctly the last time you said, ‘let’s just have some fun,’ we all ended up with lectures for catching the storage building on fire.”

“Oh, yeah, that did happen,” Elliott smirked.

“No, that wasn’t the last time,” JC corrected. “The last time he said that we ended up on the side of the road with police cars chasing us.”

Calvin laughed. “Man, that was funny as hell.”

“Not with Secret Service pulling weapons on local police officers. That was not fun.” James exhaled. “Like it or not, there are a few times when we do have to be careful.”

“Yes, but this is not one of them. We are not in jeopardy of any of those things happening.” Elliott chuckled. “But you have to admit, we did have fun.”

James smiled as he nodded. “Yes, we did.”

“As I see it, we are not planning on taking anybody in here home with us.” Calvin nudged JC. “You ready to get your dance on?”

JC stood smiling, “I got the red dress.”

“Nope, since we are not being careful, that one is mine,” James smirked as he stood. “She doesn’t look like someone you can handle.”

“Watch me work,” JC said as he walked off.

“I’ll hold the table,” Elliott offered. “I’ll let the ladies come to me for some of this caramel.”

“Yeah right,” James laughed. “You’re going to be sitting there all-night waiting.”

“You mean like you missed out on the lady in red?” Elliott raised an eyebrow.

James turned to see JC and the girl in the red dress on the dance floor. “It’s cool, I wanted the one in the blue anyway.” James walked over to the table and without much coaxing, he was on the dance floor.

James was into his third dance partner when JC tapped him on the shoulder and pointed. He looked in the direction and noticed Elliott was now on the dance floor. Sapphire Lassiter, who they all affectionately called Phire, and two other girls were sitting at their table. James nodded, then wrapped up his dance. Once he was finished, he followed JC through the crowd.

Walking toward the booth, he began to feel uneasy, as if his stomach was churning. James ran his hand over his face, attempting to calm whatever was happening with him. Slowing his steps to get himself together, he wondered for a moment if he had eaten something that might have upset his stomach. He frowned at the ridiculous thought that almost made him chuckle. He had a cast iron stomach, nothing he ate would have an effect on him. He thought he had shaken off the feeling, but the closer he got to the table the feeling began shifting to his chest.

He wasn’t sure what was happening so his thoughts went to Phire and her friends. His first thought was good, now they had what he considered safe girls to dance with. If they were hanging with Phire, he knew she had checked them out. She was as careful about her friends as he was. Looking over the girls sitting at the table his eyes stopped at the exotic beauty standing next to Phire. He felt his heart skip a beat then begin pounding. Within moments, he could literally feel the vibration of his heartbeat pounding in his ears. Who in the hell was she? He wondered as she stared at him as if she was having the same reaction.

“Phire,” James said. “You celebrating?”

“I am,” She smiled. “What are you doing here? You can do the legit clubs.”

“I can’t,” JC plugged in. “So, we came here.”

James couldn’t help it, but his eyes went back to the girl standing next to Phire. The prettiest big brown eyes he had ever seen shined back at him. She closed her eyes as if blushing. He noticed there was a slight slant to them. Her long lashes fluttered back open and the sweetest smile he had ever seen appeared when she looked at him again. All he could do was stare back at her. He had never been at a loss for words around girls. They always came easy for him, but there was something enchanting about this girl. She held his attention as if he was in a trance. Phire’s voice broke through his haze. 

“Oh, this is my roommate, ZsaZsa, and my suitemate Angela.”

James politely regarded Angela, but then his attention went back to the other girl, ZsaZsa. His brain was not functioning properly, for he could not come up with anything to say to the girl. He could not explain why but to him everything about her was so damn captivating he could not think straight. 

James laughed when he heard Phire say something harsh to the girl named Angela. “Give the girl some slack, Phire. She’s just trying to get her game on,” he said while trying hard to pull his eyes from the girl ZsaZsa, but finding it difficult to do so. She must be shy, he thought, because she hadn’t said anything. But then again, neither had he. They were just standing there staring at each other. Turning back to Phire, James noticed JC and the girl Angela walking towards the dance floor. He must have missed something he thought. James watched as Phire shook her head at the two of them. “No worries. You would be surprised what JC can handle.” He glanced in ZsaZsa’s direction again. Phire must have noticed he was distracted. 

“Here,” she stood, “Will you hang out with ZsaZsa for a minute? I’m going to holler at a friend.”

“Sure, if she doesn’t mind?”

“No.” ZsaZsa smiled. “I do not mind at all.”

James appreciated Phire recognizing his interest in her friend. Now it was just the two of them. If he was going to find out anything about her, he was going to have to initiate the conversation.

“Hi, I’m James,” he said, then exhaled. He could not believe he was nervous about talking to a girl. He was certain she was younger than him. He had no idea how young, and it was strange because in this moment, her age did not matter. “I’m sorry, Phire already told you my name.”

“Yes, she did.”

He noticed ZsaZsa’s eyes traveled over his shoulder as she spoke. Keep talking, he urged himself. Say something to get her attention. Before doing that, he looked back to where her eyes were drawn. He could see something was going on with JC. He suddenly became alert. No matter where they were or who they were with, if something was happening with one of them, all of them stopped what they were doing to back each other up. He definitely wanted to spend time getting to know ZsaZsa, but in this instance JC came first.

“Excuse me for a moment.” He said.

“Is there something amiss?” She asked.

“I’m not sure,” James said, then walked over to where JC and Phire stood.

All of the guys gathered around the table where JC was to ensure no one could really see what was happening. To anyone on the outside of the circle they had formed, it appeared a group of friends had gathered to talk. JC took care of the issue with his usual tact and once the incident was settled, James glanced over his shoulder to ensure no one was taking pictures with their cell phone or that the Secret Service team had not been alerted to what was happening. This was the way the boys protected each other. They wanted to make sure that nothing they did in public reflected back on their parents. He turned back when he heard Phire question them.

“What are you doing Monday?” Phire asked.

“I’ll be back at school.” James replied as his attention moved back to ZsaZsa. He really wanted a chance to talk to her before he left the club. He glanced back at Phire as she spoke.

“We’re having a rally for the mayor’s race on campus. JC, it would be great if you could speak.”

That was pretty cool to be asked to speak at a political rally, James thought as ZsaZsa walked up to him.

“Will you be available to join us as well?” ZsaZsa asked looking at him.

He smiled and was about to speak when her roommate, Deirdre beat him to it.

“Hold up.” Deirdre held up her hand. “You like this guy?” she smiled at him.

James immediately disliked the girl. There was something about her vibe that he was not feeling.

“Don’t, Deirdre,” Phire warned.

James looked from Phire to Deirdre, then to ZsaZsa. Clearly there was some animosity happening.

ZsaZsa blushed. “I was only asking if he would be at the rally.” 

“Yes.” James replied as he stepped between Deirdre and ZsaZsa attempting to make it clear he was interested in ZsaZsa. “I will be there. If you give me your digits I can call you. Maybe we can meet up there.”

“I think that would be wonderful.” ZsaZsa beamed.

Deirdre stepped back with her hands up in surrender. “You giving up the digits? I must be losing my touch.”

“I wonder if your mouth has anything to do with that?” Elliott tilted his head as he looked at Deirdre.

James smiled at Elliott as he pulled out his cell phone, then gave it to ZsaZsa to put in her number.

“I could be there too,” Deirdre stepped closer to James. “It’d be great to hang out after the rally.”

“She’s right,” James looked at ZsaZsa. “Would you like to get together afterwards? We could hang out at the student center?”

Deirdre took his phone from ZsaZsa before he could. “Well, here’s my number too, feel free to use it any time,” she keyed a number into his phone then pushed a button. “I sent your contact info to my phone as well,” she smirked at ZsaZsa.

James took his phone back, a bit irritated by her actions, then turned back to ZsaZsa. “Would you like to dance?”

“She doesn’t know how to dance,” Deirdre began dancing in front of him. “But I have moves for days.”

James took ZsaZsa’s hand. “I’ll teach her.” He glanced back at JC. “You straight?”

“I’m good,” JC replied with a nod of his head. “You seem to be doing okay too,” he chuckled.

“Two numbers, and the night just got started,” Elliott teased.

“I got the number I wanted,” James nodded, then walked on to the dance floor with ZsaZsa, leaving the aggressive Deirdre behind.