"Here, drink this." Kate ordered as she handed Max a very small cup of tea. Max obliged and sipped gingerly on the tea. Her heart ached like no other, but she was still feigning the stomachache so that she could buy some time to figure out how she was going to tell all of this new stuff to Kate. "Is it working?" Kate inquired. "Your stomach still hurt?" She pestered, looking down at Max lying in bed. As soon as the two girls returned to Max's room, Kate went into doctor mode and made her girlfriend lie down immediately.

Max nodded, "I'm fine Kate, really," She insisted, grabbing the blonde's hand and pulling her down to sit on the edge of the bed beside her. "Just sit down, relax." A weak smile formed at her lips. "You're the best nurse ever." She said, stroking Kate's hand gently. A grin formed on the blonde's lips and she leaned down to peck Max on the cheek. Max knew she was running out of time, and she wasn't going to be able to beat around the bush any longer. They were dancing around the subject, walking on eggshells, and she thought that maybe, just maybe she should just come straight out with it and tell Kate the truth.

"Do you need anything else, Max?" Kate questioned, her brown eyes soft.

Max shook her head, and sat up in the bed, "Kate, can we talk?"

"Of course." Kate replied, and shifted her weight in the bed so she was sitting in front of her girlfriend. She noticed Max's sad demeanor, and knew immediately that something was going on. "What's wrong?" She inquired, fear striking her if only slightly. She hoped that everything was okay, after all, when something bad happened, Kate was a pessimist, and she always expected the worst possible scenario for any situation. And this, was another one of those times. Her heartbeat picked up, and she tried to keep her thoughts calm, but she was starting to overthink everything.

Max sighed, how would she say this? "Something happened..." She began. "Something bad."

"Okay...?"

"And before I tell you what it is, you have to promise me that everything is going to be okay." Max murmured, grabbing Kate's hand and squeezing it. She wished she didn't have to do this, she wished that there could have been another way. But all signs were pointing to it; there was no way she could avoid it, no way she could get around it. The brunette knew that this was inevitable, unavoidable, and had to be done.

Kate shook her head, "I can't do that Max." She said hesitantly. "I can't promise you what I don't know."

"I understand." Max replied. She the grabbed her phone from the table beside her bed, and loaded the school website. And there they were, the pictures staring her right in the face once more, breaking her heart because she knew Kate would be devastated. "Are you ready?" Max inquired, glancing up and looking into Kate's brown eyes, her own blue ones a mixture of sadness and hesitation. The blonde was confused, but nodded nonetheless, bracing herself for whatever Max was about to show her. She was thinking the worst, that way she wouldn't be upset. "Somebody has been following us..." Max trailed off, and handed Kate her phone. And it that moment, it felt like time had stopped.

Kate scrolled through the pictures of she and Max together, hugging, kissing, holding hands, sharing secrets, being all cute and what not together. At the school, at the diner, and the lighthouse, the place that was supposed to be just for them. She felt sick to her stomach in that moment, and the pictures weren't even what made her upset. It was the fact that somebody purposely violated she and Max's privacy, and put it all out there for the world to see. It was revolting, and the captions below the pictures just made everything about a thousand times worse. Kate's eyes filled with tears, and she tried to blink them back quickly. She knew Max hated seeing her upset. But this was the moment she had feared the most; they had been exposed.

"Max..." Kate trailed off, her voice wavering with imminent sadness. "Who would do this?" She inquired.

"I don't know, Kate." Max sighed as her girlfriend gave her back her phone. It had to have been the bullies, somebody wanting to embarrass Max or Kate. Max didn't care much for it though, but she knew that this would tear Kate apart from the seams. "But we'll find out, I promise, okay? I won't let this go." She added, her voice soft, unrecognizable even. This was going to be a test in their relationship; one that could prove that they really could get through everything.

"How long have they been on there?" Kate asked.

"Just today." Max answered in a quip.

"Okay." Kate nodded. "Everything's going to be okay though, right Max?" She asked fearfully, but deep down, she knew it wouldn't. Blackwell was not a nice place, people bullied, people teased, and there was no way that you could ever put a stop to it. Kate knew this from first hand experience, and now everything was going to become worse. She had put up walls, grown thick skin, just to avoid the teases and insults and comments, and it seemed like she was going to have to have to do that all over again, become even stronger to be able to ignore this, to just push it all aside.

"You just can't let this get to you, okay Kate?" Max replied, being honest with her girlfriend. "If you give in, it will eat you alive." She added, her blue eyes blazing as she stared at her girlfriend, "But we can get through this, together. The only thing that matters is you and I are happy. It doesn't matter what other people think, okay? They're all dumb anyway." She cracked a smile in an attempt to get Kate to grin in return, and it worked, slightly, but both of them were painfully aware of the imminent doom to come ahead.