Lexi Leviathan was the lead singer for a freakishly popular Goth-metal band from Portland. At twenty eight, Lexi had been in bands since her teens. Yet it wasn't really her success as a recording artist that had made Lexi a minor celebrity across the United States. When she was twenty-three Lexi had appeared on a tacky reality TV show about a houseful of 'Rock Divas' vying to become America's next top rock goddess.
Lexi didn't win the competition, but she did become an audience favourite on the show. Her authentic hard living ways, fuck you attitude towards the show judges and frequent bitchy ripostes levelled at her fellow house-mates turned the underground metaller into an overground reality TV sensation. Lexi was deemed to be warts and all 'real' in a world of manufactured reality.
After appearing on the show Lexi's band went from strength to strength. People purchased their albums to listen to Lexi and more people than ever went to shows just to see her. Much to the chagrin of some of her band mates, Lexi was a legitimate star who believed herself to be the sole reason for their success. But as difficult as she was to be around for her old bandmates, Lexi was indeed a big part of the reason why they were all able to quit their day jobs and Lexi was also the reason that they were selling out bigger venues than any of them would've previously dreamed possible. Granted, they were hardly selling out arenas or headlining festivals, but they were certainly well on their way to mainstream success.
Lexi had been about to complete a huge, nationwide sell-out tour with the band when disaster stuck. The final show at the tail end of a long string of dates was in a small town somewhere in Alabama. A place that Lexi was more than eager to escape. In less than twenty-four hours Lexi would be at home in Portland with her dogs and her real friends to help her reacclimatise from the madness of touring life. But a welcome return to normality wasn't the only reason that Lexi was looking forward to escaping the tour-bus.
Towards the end of the tour Lexi had told the rest of the band that she would be moving on when the dates were done. Going solo with a lucrative new major label record contract and a cadre of accomplished session musicians to help take 'her sound' to the next level. Resentment had already been growing within the band and Lexi's had announcement annihilated what friendship still remained.
Yet on one level Lexi's long-time bandmates were relieved. The success they'd enjoyed as a result of Lexi's adventures in TV land had initially been sweet, but a string of soul-sucking compromises had left the rest of the band in unfamiliar and not entirely pleasant territory. Their sound had markedly softened, shorn of its sharp edges by unfamiliar producers with an ear for little more than sales.
The experience had been particularly difficult for lead guitarist and former song-writer Clay. He was the founding member of the band and had recruited Lexi and the others. All of the ideas were initially his. Lexi sang his words and the band played his tunes. Clay and Lexi had even been in a relationship for a few years. This had ended by mutual consent prior to Lexi appearing on the TV show. Despite the break-up the pair initially remained friends and were determined to persevere with the band.
Then slowly but surely things changed following Lexi's TV success. Elation regarding the band's sudden ascension gave way to resentment. Lexi seemed to embrace the chopped-up, edited and warped persona that had been presented on TV. The born again TV Rock Diva began to act as if the others were only her backing band. She got her own agent and manager, who slowly pushed the band's trusted long-time manager aside. Said agent and manager facilitated deals with labels and studio-time with the aforementioned producers. They also pushed Lexi as chief song-writer, despite the fact that she had zero talent in this area. Could she belt them out? Most certainly...Could she write them? Certainly
not
...
Not to be hindered, Lexi's management set her up with various contracted 'writing partners'. This resulted in a couple of albums more than half full with slickly produced Gothic power ballads credited to Lexi. Clay got to write the other stuff, but these were blunted by pop producers and amounted to nothing more than album filler. Of course the company pushed only Lexi's 'efforts' as singles. And much to Clay's despondence they were more successful than anything he'd ever written for the band.
By the final night of the tour Lexi was barely on speaking terms with her former friends. Clay and Lexi barely even registered the existence of one another. She'd stayed relatively clean for most of the tour, but had been drinking and snorting pretty hard for the final week. The night prior to the show she'd been partying with her manager and various hangers-on. As a consequence Lexi had barely slept. Yet wine, vodka and frequent lines of cocaine kept her buoyant enough to perform and at least enjoy herself.
The performance was average, but Lexi's announcement midway through the set that it would be their last appearance together as a band sent the crowd crazy. Following the show Lexi partied with some casual acquaintances and fans in her own private dressing room. She didn't know or care what the rest of the band were up to. With a little luck she need never see her ex-bandmate losers ever again... A hotel room awaited her and a morning flight back to Portland. With a sizeable amount of coke to finish off before the flight, Lexi knew that she was unlikely to get a quiet night's sleep. Yet it was the fans who seemed more up for partying than her acquaintances. They all quickly said their farewells and drifted off into the night. Lexi's manager had flown out earlier in the evening.
So it was that Lexi found herself giggling and gabbling and smoking in a side alley next to a dive rock-bar at one o'clock on a Friday morning with an assortment of fawning fans and hooting locals.
"A word please ladies!"
The two cops appeared out of nowhere just as Lexi pulled on pipe that was poked between her big black painted lips. The stink of weed was easily detectible in the air. Most of the crowd scattered in panic and it was only Lexi and a couple of her young fans who froze as per the uniformed cop's instructions. Despite the fear and panic rapidly enveloping her very core Lexi couldn't help but level a drug-fuelled sneer of disgust at 'the pigs'.
A young female fan whose name Lexi couldn't even remember matched Lexi's dumbass pipe in mouth posture as the police officers approached...but only for a brief moment.
"I swear she sold me the drugs and showed me how to take them!" Squealed the suddenly teary eyed young fan as she tossed away the pipe and finger jabbed wildly in Lexi's direction.
It took a good few dazed seconds for Lexi to fully comprehend that this devilish bitch - who had brought her own fucking weed and had even been encouraging Lexi to hit the pipe harder all night! -- was actually accusing
her
of selling drugs.
"Wha..." Lexi was lost for words as the two officers reached the panicked group and took a good gander at the oddball bunch of black-clad tattooed misfits.
Indeed it appeared to the two slightly amused officers that Lexi was the most senior of those that remained before them. At twenty-eight Lexi had almost ten years on the fan-girl sycophants who had insisted that she accompany them to the bar.
The officers shared a patronising smirk. The ghoulish girl who they'd caught red-handed cut quite a figure. Glossy raven hair cascaded down onto her shoulders, while a super-straight fringe cut across her perspiring forehead. Her alabaster skin tone was turning rapidly red, as the morbid
perp
fluttered her thickly mascaraed fake lashes and pursed her bee-stung black painted lips. Each of her stretched ear lobes were wrapped around twin black discs. Myriad piercings lined her upper ears, while a tusk like bar protruded through her septum and silver studs were visible on each of her cheeks and lower lips. A scraggly, black faux-fur cape was draped over her frilly fronted black Gothic blouse, while tight black jeans stretched down her legs to meet a pair of absurdly high black suede platform boots.
Lexi had only changed her sweaty top following the performance and admittedly did look somewhat outlandish to the attending officers. One of those officers cleared his throat and stepped forward to address the dazed drug-takers.
"Okay ladies. It's clear that you're breaking the law back here, so it goes without saying that we're gonna have to have a few words."
Being super-high, incredibly scared and not at all in her right mind, Lexi dropped the pipe and moved purposefully towards the officers.
"I haven't done anything wrong, okay? So I'm just going to leave you guys to whatever this is..." And with that the petulant Goth superstar actually attempted to push her way between the bemused cops.
If Lexi had have just stopped when her arm was grabbed by one of the cops then things probably wouldn't have escalated like they did. Unfortunately she wrenched her arm away from the cop, shoved them both in a renewed effort to pass and then clawed with black painted nails at one of the officers as he tried to restrain her yet again. This was the final straw. Lexi Leviathan swiftly found herself gasping in pain and kicking her platform booted feet as her face was pressed against piss drenched concrete and her hands agonisingly cuffed behind her back. Unbeknownst to Lexi at that precise moment, she was suddenly facing resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer charges as well as the initial drugs charges. The last night of the last tour was looking like a rough one...