A Bitter Cinderella Story [Tom Keifer/Nikki Sixx fanfic]

Chapter 14: No More Mister Nice Guy

Nothing could spoil Nikki's happiness he felt at this moment. Motley Crue were on top of their game, the new album was selling hot, they got their Gold award after reaching 500,000 in only a few short weeks, quickly gaining to a million. He had his beloved Tom at his side, everything was just perfect except for the looming problem that was John X. 

Nikki wanted to tell Tom but the moment never arrived that was suitable. He only had two nights left before Motley Crue was off again across the United States on their year long tour. Tom too would be off on his first tour, a big deal for the Philly band. 

It wasn't until he received a call from Tommy Lee that popped the bubble he was under. 

"My cleaner keeps a stack of tabloids she reads on her lunch break and Heather happened to look through then and saw the headline...I guess I must have mentioned them to her so she showed me." 

"Showed you what?" 

"This shit piece is claiming Cinderella is a fag band, and all sorts of other nasty shit inside. It's a fucking hit piece if I ever saw one Nikki." 

John, it had to be fucking him! Nikki was seething, he thanked Tommy Lee, asked for the title of the shitty tabloid magazine, and immediately was on the phone with Doc blasting him about the magazine and demanding the label do something about it. 

"Look those shit rags always come up with absurd bullshit, nothing new. They write about Elvis being alive and other false shit. Hell they even wrote shit about Bowie being a fag no big deal, I'll have some lawyers send them a letter threatening them for libel or whatever. But what's it to you anyways?" 

Doc was very much in the dark about Nikki and Tom. 

"They're my friends Doc." Wasn't a lie. 

"Okay okay yeah we'll handle it." 

Doc hung up, rolled his eyes but made a couple of calls regardless. Nikki could be such a little pain sometimes. One sleazy tabloid? Small fish to fry. 

After talking to Doc, Nikki groaned and rubbed his face realizing this was his chance of telling Tom about John being back in town now that he was likely causing trouble in ways they were unaware of, and that freaked Nikki out. 

Before calling Tom, Nikki needed confirmation it was John, he needed proof he was behind this, so he called his Hell Angels after looking up the location where the local tabloid was printed, sending them to do his dirty work and find out who wrote the shit piece.

Tom and Cinderella were still in the studio for the week, rehearsing alongside Jon and his band readying for their tour. It was still early in the afternoon and Nikki mulled over whether or not to call Tom and take him out early rather than wait for him to come over afterwards. 

Maybe he was overreacting, it wasn't like this was a main rock magazine publishing this shit, just some scummy low tabloid according to Tommy Lee. But it's existence bothered him. A rumor could spread so easily in this industry, in this city. 

Combined with the AIDS crisis, and growing anti-gay sentiment in the media, even Hollywood and West Hollywood with this vibrant gay community were feeling the consequences of this new shift in attitudes about queer folk. While the 70s were not the most tolerant of periods, slowly things were changing for the better but under Reagan progress seemed to grind to a stop and even reverse. 

Once a rumor took hold, it became fact and a gay rock band, or a rock band with a gay lead singer was just, well never gonna make it. Was that John's ploy? Ruin Cinderella before they took off, hampering their road to success? Seems like something he'd do. Motley Crue was at their heights, it would take much more for them to fall, but a new upcoming band? Easier to derail and ruin.