Free First Verse (Second Verse Book 1) by Emily Snow

looked up at her and slowly bobbed my head.
    I didn’t do anything wrong.
    Things would be fine because I didn’t do anything this time.
    Everything would go back to normal, and I’d be able to go home .
    ♫
    But I didn’t go home.
    And other than one uncomfortable visit from my mother two weeks after she was released, nobody came for me.
    So I waited.
    And just when I finally gave up after a couple months, when I finally came to terms with the fact that I had nobody—no Emmett, no Mrs. H, not even my mother whose letters had been returned to me marked Moved, Left No Address —I finally got a visitor.
    Lyra.
    She sat across from me at visitation, her pink lips pressed together, and her hands starch white because she was gripping the phone so tightly. “I’ve been worried sick about you. I would’ve come sooner, but my mom has a bad habit of collecting my mail for months, and I just got your letters when I was home in Savannah,” she whispered. She put her hand against the glass separating us, and I swallowed down the sob threatening to explode from the back of my throat. If I hadn’t cried in the last several weeks, there was no point doing it now. Not even when Lyra reminded me of just how screwed I was. “A year. They gave you a year. I’m so sorry, Kinz.”
    “I didn’t do it.” I’d been saying it for so long, it sounded robotic now. I touched the glass, earning an eye roll from the woman in the next booth over. “Hazel set me up.”
    Lyra closed her eyes. “I didn’t think you did, I just—”
    “That crazy bitch set me up because she thought I’d ruin her brother’s career and then she poisoned Mrs. H into hating me too.” I’d written long letters to both Emmett and Mrs. Hudson and neither had responded—not that I’d expected them to. My fingerprints had been all over Hazel’s necklace, and given my history, I didn’t have a leg to stand on.
    That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt like hell to feel abandoned.
    My friend took a deep breath. “Kinsey ... I don’t know anything about Emmett, but Mrs. Hudson ...”
    The hesitation in her voice froze my spine, and I knew I didn’t want to hear what she was about to say next. I knew it would finally break me.
    And it did. Because what Lyra said next was worse than waiting or being alone.
    What she said finally broke the numbness and dragged out the sobs I’d been holding in since I was arrested because I kept telling myself that I would figure it out, that things could be okay.
    Mrs. Hudson was ... gone.

Chapter Nine
    Five Months Later
    G ripping the plastic bag holding my belongings and the clothes I’d worn when I got arrested, I thanked the guard for the sweatshirt and pants she’d given me to wear home. “I’ll bring them back,” I promised, but she waved it off.
    “Take care of yourself, Kinsey.” She wagged her finger at me. “I mean it.”
    Stepping out into the lobby of the building that had been my home for the last several months, I eased down on the closest bench. I sorted through the plastic bag until I found my phone and key necklace. As I waited for the phone to power on, I slipped on the necklace and closed my eyes, rubbing the cuts of the key over the pad of my thumb.
    Just breathe, I reminded myself. Everything changes now.
    I was scared to death of those changes.
    “Thank goodness,” a voice said, and I opened my eyes and immediately grinned when Lyra rounded the corner carrying a bag of chips and a drink from the vending machine. “The dark hair has made its epic return.”
    Gently touching my dark roots, I snorted. “As soon as I get settled in, I’m making a date with a box of hair color and dying it all brown.” She walked closer to me, and I swallowed the lump of emotion in my throat. “You came.” I wasn’t sure she’d be able to, considering I’d found out just two days ago that I was going to be released early, but Lyra had pulled it off.
    She rolled her big gray eyes. “Of course, I came. As soon