Max's sleep through the night was eerily calm for the hell that had been the 'day' for her. She probably could have slept for a week if it weren't for the sunlight peeking in through Kate's once again open windows, but more importantly the sound of violin filling the small dorm room.

Max stretched her arms over her head. "Hey, you're playing your violin again."

Kate stopped playing and smiled over at Max. "Well I still feel pretty bad, but I know that I'll never get better if I don't try to return to normal."

"That's awesome of you Marshmallow, a very mature attitude."

Kate groans at the nickname. "Max, you do realize like everyone I've ever known has called me by that nickname."

"Alright then bun-bun."

"MAX!" Kate yelled loudly, clearly offended.

Max almost jumped clear up to the ceiling as she shot up with Kate's exclamation. "What, what'd I do?"

For her part Kate was back to being much more quiet, much more discreet as though she were trying to whisper in public. "That's what I call my…" and she kind of looks down and back behind her—Max picks up the implication immediately and falls back laughing.

Kate turns a new shade of red. "It's not funny Max." She tries to sound indignant but knows she is failing. It's nice to be embarrassed about something nonsensical rather than the awful things of the last week.

Max just continued to lay down on Kate's bed when she heard Kate's phone go off. She remained still with her eyes closed—she didn't want to prevent Kate from answering her phone call. Max heard her friend take a deep breath before answering the phone.

"Hi Auntie Marsh," Kate said tentatively, her voice slipping back into depression instead of sounding like she was soldiering through.

This must be the same Auntie Marsh that wrote Kate that horrible letter.

She couldn't make out the words that were being said to Kate, but the loud, shrill yelling and the occasional words like brimstone told Max that Kate was getting another reaming by this horrible family member. Max felt horrible for Kate as she didn't deserve it, but she didn't feel like she could do anything to help Kate at the moment.

The yelling continued and Max pulled the sheets tighter up over her head, making more than enough noise to draw Kate's attention. This is the day Kate tried to jump. I wonder if this is part of what pushed her over. Maybe this is why Kate called me that morning needing to talk.

A long sigh was heard from Kate again and Max's heart broke. Max couldn't just listen to Kate get beat up by a family member anymore—a loud deep breath from Kate was pushing her over the edge, but before Max could sit up and look at Kate, something happened.

"No, you listen Auntie Marsh."

Max froze, not moving from her perch under the sheets. What's this?

"I said you listen. You don't care about what I did, who I am, or what's going on in my life unless it makes you look bad. For your information I was drugged at the party hence why I appeared that way in the video."

Holy shit, is Kate standing up to her Aunt?

"The video was taken down, the person who recorded it didn't know I was drugged. Yes, the Police know, they already arrested the kid who drugged me. I'm supposed to go meet with the police later today."

Max was sure that Kate could see her moving under the sheets wondering what was going on as she pumped her fists. This was the first time that she had experienced Kate not backing down in the face of adversity and Max couldn't be more excited for her friend.

"You know Auntie Marsh, I don't have to sit here and take this abuse from you. I know about amateur night when you were eighteen. If you're going to judge me for something that happened when someone tried to attack me, then you should condemn yourself for actions you chose to perform.

Wowsers, Kate is perhaps the sweetest girl I have ever met but boy can she be a firecracker. Max sat up and pulled off the covers, looking at Kate who was standing and looking far more angry than Max even thought she was capable of being.

"Auntie Marsh, this conversation is over. You can call and speak to me again when you decide that you are going to be a concerned, compassionate Christian instead of a hypocritical, judgmental bitch!" With that last word Kate pulled the phone from her face, hit the end call button, and dropped the cell onto her couch.

Max leapt out of the bed and put her arms around Kate squeezing the blonde girl tightly. "That was so amazing Kate!"

Kate took a deep breath once Max let go enough to allow her to breathe. "Thanks Max. I guess a little bit of Victoria must have rubbed off on me yesterday."

Max couldn't help but grin. "Kate, that was all you and it was great. You have so many people who really care about you and want to see you happy that you need to learn to cast aside those who strive to shoot you down. Your aunt sounded pretty severe and I'm glad you didn't just take the verbal beating she was giving you."

Kate just smiled, the largest smile Max had seen from the girl in a long time. "Thanks Max, I don't know that I would have had the courage if you weren't here. I don't know what I would have done without my best friend."

As she heard Kate's choice of words, Max's heart just broke. Chloe. She quickly scrambled to find something, anything to hide how such innocent words from a wonderful person could shatter her so completely. Her phone! She quickly checked her phone and found it was dead.

"Um Kate," Max mumbled while failing to sound stoic, "I need to go charge my phone, I'll see you later."

Confusion covered Kate's face—did she say something wrong to Max? The poor girl in her moment of triumph was left confused over something that she couldn't possibly know about.

"Um, I'll come check on you later, bring some tea maybe Max?"

"Yeah, yeah, that'd be great," Max responded as she quickly made her way out of Kate's room.

The nice part about their dorm is that Max's door was still no more than fifteen feet away from Kate's, so even as she fled the scene she was never far away.

As Max opened her own door to hide she heard a door behind her open. I hope that's not Kate trying to chase me down.

"Maxine Caulfield, we need to talk," the voice said authoritatively.

Max sighed, only one person in this school would call her Maxine.

Without looking back she responded the only way she could, "Alright Victoria."

I wanted Kate to have both a "grow a backbone" moment and a "drop the mic" moment, and I think I achieved that here. Yes, Kate said a swear word, but I'm hoping that everyone who read that line was as pumped reading it was I was writing it.