Author's note: I do not own Noel Fielding or the Mighty Boosh, though wish as I may. Nor do I own the amazing lyrics used for this songfic. They are, "This is the Sound" by The Last Goodnight. I bow down to them.
i I let you in, just a little too close You shut the door, so nobody would know I know I heard a shot, on the fourteenth floor The music was raw, you really put on a show… /i
Thalamus pulled her legs to her chest and let out another sob. Her short brown hair was a mess around her face as she laid on her side. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying and her voice hoarse from sobbing. She grabbed her cell phone as it rang and checked the ID. b Vince Noir /b . Her average frame trembled with anguish and anger at the sight of his name. He had hurt her beyond reason and she would not put up with it. He had led her to believe she was the only one for him. She thought after a year and a half you would have let someone know if you weren't into it. She had thought they were happy together. He hadn't been acting unhappy. In fact he had been telling her how happy he was. She shook her head and tossed the picture of her and him on their one-year anniversary of dating across the room sending glass flying. She reached for her phone and dialed her best mate Elle's number. She waited for Elle to answer compressing her sobs. The phone buzzed slightly and went straight to the answering machine,
"Hey! This is Elle! Leave me a message and I'll get back to you! Beeeeeeep."
Thalamus closed her phone and laid back down on her bed. She bit her lip and let out another sob. She had found out Vince was seeing another girl behind her back. Apparently she was a frequent flier at Naboo's shop below their flat and stumbled her way up there one day and they met. She thought of Vince's face when she walked out of Nabootique. He had tried to stop her. She wouldn't listen. She shook and dialed Elle's phone again. The same damn answering machine. This time she chose to leave a message,
"E-e-elle!" she sobbed, "He was s-seeing another girl!"
With just that as a message she hung up unable to explain more without hearing Elle's voice. They had been through thick and thin. Elle had seen Thal with plenty of guys before Vince but she had never seen Elle, or the guy for that matter, so content and in love. Thalamus set her phone down and grabbed her iPod and bottle of sparkling white grape juice and set off to her bathroom. She had snapped when she caught Vince and the intruder in Vince's flat cuddling on the couch and kissing. She covered her face and leaned against the wall. She felt her iPod slip from her hand and hit the carpeted floor next to her foot. Typically she would stay at Vince's place with enough clothes for a week or two at a time, but tonight she had taken refuge at her friend Allen's house on the other side of town. He had been a good friend of her's for a long while and when she showed up on his doorstep crying with a pile of clothes in her arms he couldn't turn her away. He had left to get some take out while Thal decided to stay home. Once she regained some composure Thalamus grabbed her iPod and hurried into the master bathroom. The tub was large enough to fit several people in it and she felt like something relaxing. She turned the water on so it steamed and hurt to touch. Then she poured in a full 12oz. bottle of soap bubbles. She threw her clothes on the ground and stuck one leg into the bathwater. She hissed and winced at the heat. She pulled her legs back out and examined it. It was bright red and throbbing. She took a breath and hissed as she sunk herself neck deep into the hot water. She felt like crying more from the water being so hot but held it in. She was done crying for the night. It was all she had done since leaving Vince's flat. She put the earbuds into her ears making sure they didn't get caught on her rook. She had a silver bar in with two silver hearts on the ends. Vince had given it to her for their anniversary. She bit her lip and unscrewed the top heart and pulled the bar out. She then reached into her pocket pulling out a silver bar with spikes on the end and shoved it in the place of the rook Vince had given her. She turned the song on her iPod up loudly and sighed, leaning into the wall of the tub. She couldn't comprehend why Vince would do this to her. She nearly jumped out of her skin as the door opened before her eyes. She jumped and pulled the earphones out tossing them on the floor. She covered herself and looked for something to cover herself with,
"WOULD YOU BLOODY KNOCK!" she shouted before seeing who it was. She paused and sighed when she realized it was Elle. Allen had probably gotten home a while ago and let her in, or picked her up on his way back. Thalamus sighed and settled back into her bath. Elle walked over and sat on the edge of the tub,
"What happened? Exactly." She asked giving Thalamus a look that said she was willing to listen but she didn't want Thalamus exaggerating. Thalamus took a deep breath and looked up at Elle's expectant face,
"Well, I had been going home for the night and I walked in on him and that whore kissing on the couch watching Dawn of the Dead." She couldn't hold it in again. She burst into tears and covered her face. She hated being seen like this but she and Elle were close. They had been room-mates when they first moved to London. Elle pat Thal's head and stood with a towel open for Thalamus. They knew the routine. Thalamus climbed out of the tub and into the towel Elle was holding up for her. They both walked into the room Thalamus was staying in and settled Elle's things in for the night. Thalamus pulled on her clothes and sighed. She paused and walked into the living room grabbing her phone and back to the room. She flipped the phone open and sat on the bed by Elle. She bit her lip and closed her eyes,
i You lift me up, Just to let me down, You lift me up, Just to let me down,
You call me on the phone to try to see if I'm at home You play with my emotions; give me some kind of hope I miss you, God I miss you, why do I? I finally gathered up the strength To get through these lonely, lonely nights /i
"He's left 15 messages." She whispered handing Elle the phone. Elle shook her head and turned the speaker on. They would play the messages while Thalamus would cry and Elle would hug her with one arm deleting the messages one by one. This is how it was. At least all the other times. Elle wasn't sure how Thalamus would do with this one. She had loved him. Elle pressed the play button for the first message and they sat,
"Thal, listen to me, it wasn't-" Elle cut the message short. Just like every other guy the excuse would be "Its not what it looked like". She knew the routine and pressed play for the message that would probably say something along the lines of "I'm so sorry baby, I'll never do it again, just come home." Nevertheless the pair listened intently to the message on Thalamus's phone,
"Thalamus Isis Delaney, I love you. Call me when you're ready."
The shock slowly set in for both of them as they realized it wasn't like any of the other guys. Elle scrolled through the rest of the messages listening to only bits and pieces of them. Most consisted of "I knew I loved you when," and then an even in which Vince found himself falling more and more for Thalamus. Elle watched as her best friend broke down again. Thalamus had been reduced to a crying mess in Elle's lap. All Elle could think to do was have Thalamus talk to Vince about it. What had happened, what they were going to do about it, and so on.
"Thal, you've got to talk to him," she said looking, not at her best friend, but forward, "He's not like the rest. You heard him."
Elle left the issue to rest overnight as Thalamus rolled over and stared at the wall across the room. Both of the girls jumped as the door flung open and Allen came running in the room. He had a bag in his arms and was bubbling over with smiles,
"Thalllllll!" he chimed, "I've got a present for you!"
Thalamus sat up and gave him a look that shot daggers. Now was not the time to bug her with trivial things like Allen was prone to doing. She sighed and looked at the bag in his arms. She raised an eyebrow and turned her head to the side,
"What is it?" she asked crawling towards him. Suddenly Thalamus was knocked over in a mass of licking and fur. She fought against the powers of the tiny creature and when she finally got a chance to breathe she smiled,
"OH MY GOD! You got me a dog!" she cheered and hugged the small black Scottish Terrier to her. She looked up at Allen and smiled, "Thank you!"
"Well I know you wanted one but didn't know where to find one and while I was shopping there was a guy selling them and well, I thought, why not? So I grabbed it for you to make you smile." He said with a wink. Allen had been a close friend of Thal's for a long time too, not like Elle, but close to it. Thalamus smiled and sighed, she knew she needed to talk to Vince but she was scared. She looked into the big gold eyes of her new puppy and back up to Allen,
"What's its name?" she asked.
"Well, you haven't named it yet." He replied simply.
"I think I'll name it, Cerebus." She said with a smile. Her two best friends sighed and laughed as they all snuggled in for bed. Allen wormed his way into the middle as the girls curled up with their backs against his sides. For now, Thalamus was shoving thoughts of Vince out of her mind.