Interior by KLeenaGirl (list of e readers .TXT) 📖

stayed like that for a long time. It felt good just to have him as company, not feeling alone at this moment. But I knew it was time for me to apologize to him for all the concern and troubles I had caused him in the past year.
‘Sebastian’, I said gently. When no reply came, I continued. ‘I’m sorry.’
I heard some noises beside me and realized that he had sat up. Now he was staring at me with big eyes. Even though, it confused me, I went on.
‘I know I hurt you by my actions and I’m sorry. It wasn’t fair of me to treat you like that. I promise I will make it better and I want to keep your friendship. Sebastian, you are so important to me, I don’t want to lose you. I understand that you’re angry with me, but I’m sor…’
Sebastian cut me off by pulling me into a warm embrace. My head was pushed up against his chest and for the first time in a long period I felt comfortable. I had to bite my tongue to keep my relief and my sobs down.
‘It’s okay, Alex. I didn’t want to push you away like this. I care about you and this morning, I was just angry. You know, you’ve been disappearing from school time and again, and that really makes me worry.’
I swallowed. So he really cares? ‘I’m sorry, that was never my intention, Sebastian.’ I leaned on my elbows now, so I was staring directly into his deep blue eyes, underlining my honesty.
‘Well’, he began casually, ‘what’s got you all stressed up that you don’t come to class? I mean, what’s the matter?’
Damn. I knew he would ask. As much as those eyes were begging me to say the truth, my mind knew there was no way I could tell him the real reason. Instead I made up a little story which wasn’t even completely untrue. ‘Well, the thing is, it’s pretty hard to live all alone and I often feel lonely.’ So there, it wasn’t even a lie, though it was not the reason for me staying absent from school all the time.
Sebastian looked at me, his eyes changing from questioning into pitiful-understanding. ‘Oh, Alex, I hadn’t realized how much that is bugging you. Forgive me, I’m such a fool.’
‘It’s okay’, I whispered weakly. In a corner in the back of my mind I wondered why I felt so insecure right now. I mean, I was a top assassin of Great Britain, I shouldn’t feel uneasy about a bit of loneliness, right?
‘You aren’t alone in this crazy world, Alex. Don’t you ever forget that’, he smiled at me, patting my back before settling into his lying position again. It’s funny, since he guessed the exact way I felt sometimes.
All alone on this damned planet.
A smile crept onto my lips and I rolled onto my back to watch the beautiful dark sky. The night’s clear and you can see the stars perfectly from the crouch in the tree.
‘This place is beautiful, by the way’, Sebastian whispered amazed and turned to face me, ‘how did you find it?’
‘I know’, I agreed, ‘I found it by accident. After I got lost on my way home.’ Our faces were only inches away from each other. ‘I come here when I need to be alone or to think.’
‘Well, thank you for showing me it’, he said and his hand began to caress my cheek softly. ‘It means a lot to me.’
I blushed. I didn’t know why, but being so close to him embarrassed me. So, at a loss of words, I simply smiled at him.
That seemed to reassure him and pushed forwards. Our lips were almost touching now. Quickly I pulled away and looked up into the sky again. I knew I had disappointed him with that, I could tell from the look in his face I saw as I glanced sideward. It hadn’t been my intention to do so and it actually hadn’t been my intention to pull away from him. I really liked Sebastian and I felt that he was the only person in the ordinary world who understood me. But still…something in me was holding me back. I had to explain him, so I opened my mouth to talk to him, but he went first.
‘Sorry’ he muttered, ‘I got carried away. I didn’t mean to....’
‘No’, I started insecure, ‘no, it’s okay. It’s not your fault.’
‘You know what?’, he asked and I shook my head. ‘Let’s just forget it and lie here for a while.’
‘Can’t argue with that’, I giggled and slowly my winded up insides calmed again. From now on, life would get better, I knew. There was only one problem left and that were those bad dreams.

Suddenly, a shooting star crossed the scene as I hold onto my pendant and made my secret wish.
‘Please, let the nightmares stop.’


Chapter 4


Humming I entered the ISO’s headquarters. A small smile lay on my lips and I felt good. I had slept through the whole night without any nightmares hindering me from resting (maybe I should continue on wishing on shooting stars?). I was fully awake and ready to begin my work on this beautiful Saturday morning. Today’s morning girls’ training with our trainer Eileen Cox was on the plan. Because I still had some time, I wandered over to greet Dave and his co-workers. Maybe some of my spy-mates were also here.
I made my way into the great hall. Dave sat at his desk, already working at the computer, Mrs Cox was arguing with Samuel Lewis, the boys’ trainer, and to my surprise ISO’s Chief Director Jack Anderson was in here, as well.
‘Good morning, everyone’ I cheered friendly and was met by murmured ‘morning’ from David and being ignored from the trainers. Only Mr Anderson walked towards me and wished me a ‘good morning’. Then he looked at me sternly, as if he was expecting me to say anything. Insecure, I exchanged a look with David who gestured me something like ‘I have no idea’. Mentally sighing I kept on showing my smile and asked innocently, ‘What’s the matter?’ I know that some people might find it rude to talk that way to their superior, but here in ISO Jack was known as a nice chief who tolerated the strange, youthful (as he would say) behaviour of his good workers.
‘I wanted to ask you the same. I have recently noticed how stressed you’ve become, and how depressed. I don’t want to see any of my subordinates suffer, so I thought that maybe you’d want to talk about it.’ He said, all sincerely.
No, someone must have told him about my recent state. I wondered who. I knew David and Benny would never go to Jack with personal issues, so they were cut out. My guess was that it has been somebody from my squad I was teamed up with most of the time.
‘Thank you for your concern, Sir. But I’m fine. It’s true I had some kind low phase the past weeks, but I’m over it. I promise.’ I answered honestly.
‘Oh, well, if you say so’, Mr Anderson explained, ‘Emily just mentioned something about you not feeling so well. I’m glad everything’s clear now.’
‘Thanks, Jack.’ Emily was Jack’s daughter and at the same time she was the female chief operator at ISO. Even though, she had told her father about me, I wasn’t mad at her. Quite the opposite, it was her duty to inform Jack of the spies’ states and on the other hand, I knew she had only done so because she cared about me. Emily was a really generous person with a big heart. And by the way, she was a beautiful girl, too. Her blonde hair fell down in soft locks surrounding her pretty face with her glowing blue eyes. At the age of 25 she was the oldest of the girls’ group and she was allied with Tim Lowen, the second in command of the boys’.
‘Alright, Sir, I must go now’, I said when I heard the others arrive. Eileen called for us girls, while Samuel went off with his group consisting of seven young men at the age between 16 and 27.
Us girls were only four young women, on the contrary. That didn’t mean we were less important. Since we had the better trainer, we were even better than the boys at some things. While Samuel Lewis was a 44-year-old chubby and easily drunken bachelor, Eileen Cox, being at the same age, was still in perfect health and a very hard and strict teacher, especially at physical education. The training we did undergo in her lessons was harder than anything you could imagine, but it reached its purpose: It made you strong and fit for all missions you might receive.
In the changing room I went over to Maria, one of my best friends here at ISO. She was such a great person. Usually she was a little shy, but at the same time she was friendly and very intelligent. Because of her quietness she had the job of the observer, gaining all necessary information before giving us the signal to attack.
‘Have you asked him out yet?’ I said causally as I changed into the black shorts and the black tank top. I pushed the pendant of my necklace down beneath the fabric, so it wouldn’t get in the way during training.
Maria Stewart blushed and looked on the floor, her short crispy, blonde hair falling down in the progress. ‘Alex’, she hushed. She knew exactly who I meant with the him. It wasn’t a secret in our station that Maria had fallen in love with Julian Waller, a 20-year-old member of the boys’ section.
‘C’mon, Maria’, I sighed, ‘even he knows.’
‘He does?’ she suddenly shrieked, her face looking all shocked.
‘Of course, he does’, Emily laughed.
Lucy Hopkins, the female part of the Hopkins twins, raised her voice. ‘Alex’s right. It’s just too obvious, sweetie. Why don’t you just tell him?’
Maria let her shoulders hang down. ‘That’s easy for you to say. What if he rejects me?’
Suddenly, we heard Mrs Cox clearing her throat. ‘Girls, now it’s not the time for romantic gossip. Get into the gym quickly, you’ve been staying far too long in the changing room! Thirty laps to warm up!’ We were told by Eileen’s deep voice.
Shutting finally up, we began our regular training. We started to run the laps. It wasn’t hard, since we were used to it. Afterwards the difficult things began, Push-up, training with weights and some rather painful stretching exercises Three hours later, we were dismissed for lunch.

We met the boys’ team in the canteen. Lucy pushed Maria over to sit right next to her crush Julian Waller. Of course, Maria tried to protest, but shut her mouth quickly when Julian offered to fetch a drink for her. Lucy and I grinned at each other, then she went off to greet her twin brother Christopher. Our chief operator Emily was soon trapped in a heated discussion with the male chief operator John Mansfield and her boyfriend Tim.
That left me sitting and eating with the remaining members of the boys’ section. There was Simon Hyde, the youngest spy of ISO. Although, he was only 16 and wasn’t allowed to take missions yet, he was a high intelligent kid and always good for planning the best strategy possible. Just like me, he was still a trainee, so he was some kind of a younger brother to me. Next came Colin Lynch, he was someone I was very good friends with. The 19-year-old and I were often teamed up