Out in the Wind

Bonus Chapter - Opening Gifts

A/N: It's been a long time coming... I have had this chapter written for a very long time. My idea was to either publish it on the 1 year anniversary of finishing Out In The Wind or when I hit 100K reads here on Wattpad. We have since gone far past both of those milestones. 

To be very honest, I have forgotten that I had written this chapter, so when I got a phone call today requesting this bonus chapter, from a very good friend that just finished Cory's story with him, I decided that it is now or never. I immediately sat down and begun publishing the chapter, and now without further ado, here it is. 

This one is dedicated to GiseleOertel Thank you for being a friend. This chapter being posted is in large part thanks to you. 

And also... Thank you to everyone that has read this story, supported it, voted, cried, sent a message, made a comment, laughed, and lived every second of this story with me and Cory. We thank you from the bottom of our heart.

All my love,

C.A. Kerst

A book can carry a little part of your soul. I know that statement is true. I know because I live that way. Just as much as a part of my soul will be bound between the pages of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the pages keeping my secrets of how I slept in a park, underneath Dumbledore's bench, right up to the point where I sold the copy Mister Graham gave me and the book opened up new opportunities for me. I can remember almost every book I have ever read. Sometimes I can't remember the title, or the name of the main character, but those things aren't always important. Sometimes what you need to remember, and what I do remember is the feeling that I had when reading the book. Each one is different. Each one made me feel different. Some made me smile and laugh. Others made me cry. Some made me throw the book at a wall. So...If I were to give someone my favorite book... Well, that's probably not an option. I would have to give a box of my favorites. But knowing that here, on this makeshift bed, on the ground, in my own room; my very own room, I am surrounded by presents that I still need to open. That's special. It's more than just special, because my friends and the people I love didn't really give me books. They gave me something far more special. They each gave me a little piece of their soul.

"Cory... Baby... A penny for your thoughts?" Patrick asks.

I don't know how I didn't hear him come into the room, or that his hand was on my leg. I guess I must have been too far away. It hasn't exactly been the easiest day in history. We lost Dumbledore. I played piano. My birthday was somewhere in between all of the commotion. It had been neither a good nor a bad day. I think it was more just an emotional day.

"Hmm," I answer. "I was just kinda thinking about books."

I put my hand on top of Patrick's before I lean over for a kiss. He turns the tables however and turns me around, allowing my back to rest against his front as he strokes his fingers through my hair and kisses me softly on the head.

"I thought you said you were coming to open all of these?" Patrick says gesturing to the wrapped presents laying around me on the bed. "They aren't going to open themselves you know."

"I know. I was just thinking about it. How each of you gave me a little bit of yourselves in these presents. I like the idea. I like that I will have a little bit of each of you with me forever," I say with a smile, leaning my head back and turning my face to nuzzle in his neck.

"If you keep on doing that I might need to start undressing you in which case you will never get to opening presents," Patrick says through clenched teeth as I keep on running my lips over the skin in his neck.