The next day at school, Rhys doesn't show up and Louis is so thankful, he sees Robby Shift smirking at him a lot but Louis tries to ignore it all. He's just so thankful to be free of Rhys, even if it's just for a day.

Louis is so popular at school and his friends have all noticed he's been distant since he has been with Rhys, they all seem really happy when he tells them they are no longer together, especially Noah who hated seeing his best friend so distant. Louis hasn't told anyone about how Rhys treated him he really wouldn't even know where to start.

Harry is also in a much better mood Come morning, knowing Louis isn't with Rhys anymore has him relaxing and thankful, everyone can tell the tension in the house has somewhat eased.

As the Friday night dinner approaches Louis and Noah start to make plans, they plan to head out for pizza then head back to Noah's for movies. Louis is actually really excited to hang out with Noah, it's been ages and he needs some one on one time with his best friend.

Louis and Noah end up having a great Friday afternoon, Louis feels more like himself than he has in a while. Noah doesn't ask to much about Rhys, he knows it's not something Louis really wants to talk about and he's actually glad Louis is free from Rhys, Rhys seemed to become a jerk and Noah could tell Louis wasn't happy and he hated seeing his best friend like that.

"Ready to go Lou?" Noah smiles as they finish getting changed and get ready to head to dinner.

"I'm so looking forward to a pizza right now" Louis says smiling,

"Me too" Noah agrees as they head out.

It's getting cold out but Louis doesn't take his jacket, he's just in his black skinny jeans and olive green sweater. He figures they will be inside for most of the night anyway.

Noah drives them to the pizza place, they take their orders and sit at the booth. They talk and laugh and Louis relaxes more than he has in a while.

Just before their pizza arrives, Louis heads to the bathroom.

When he gets to the bathroom, Louis does his business and then comes out of the stall, he washes his hands and is about to leave when Rhys and Robbie show up.

"Out on a date are we?" Rhys says as he stares Louis down angrily.

Louis is confused, Noah is straight and everyone knows it.

"No, Noah and I are friends" Louis says.

Rhys smirks then looks to Robbie, Robbie smirks back and then goes to the door he stands just outside the door and keeps watch while Rhys approaches Louis.

"I told you it was a bad idea to break up with me and that you'd regret it didn't I" Rhys says seriously.

"I...um" Louis says, he's scared of Rhys and what he will do to him.

"This is for your own good Louis, you need to learn respect and to know who's right and who's in charge" Rhys snarls.

Louis breathing picks up and Rhys doesn't hesitate before he lays in to Louis, punching him hard in the ribs and stomach over and over until Louis is on the floor. Rhys kicks Louis a few times and Louis whimpers, not wanting to show weakness, Rhys is so much bigger than him though and Louis tries to fight back, only to be overtaken.

When Rhys is finished he stands up, Louis is in so much pain he can hardly move.

"You're mine Louis and I'll keep teaching you lessons until you realise" Rhys says and then he is out the bathroom door, leaving Louis alone on the floor.

Tears prick Louis eyes, his breathing is irregular as he tries to pull himself together. He manages to stand up and holds onto the sink for balance. Thankfully Rhys didn't hurt Louis in any places physically seen.

Louis pulls himself together as best he can and heads back out to the restaurant, trying not to give in to his pain and look hurt.

When he rounds the corner though, he sees the whole football team including Rhys and Robbie sitting with Noah, they are all laughing together. Louis forgot this is their usual hangout on a Friday night.

"Lou! There you are, the guys are going to join us is that okay?" Noah asks happily as all the boys greet Louis, Rhys and Robbie smirking at him subtly.

"Yeah sure" Louis says.

The table goes back to chattering and Louis sits in next to Noah.

"Are you okay?" Noah asks, Louis doesn't look right to him.

"I'm actually not feeling the best, do you mind if I bail?" Louis asks quietly

"Are you okay? I'll drive you home" Noah says

"No no I'm fine, it's only a ten minute walk home you stay, enjoy your night with the guys" Louis says smiling slightly

Noah looks at Louis carefully before he nods his head.

"Okay, if you're sure. I know you don't really want to be around Rhys right now and that's fine" Noah smiles slightly.

"Yeah, I'm just going to go quietly, Just slip out, cover for me if they ask?" Louis asks Noah

"Of course" Noah smiles

Louis nods and he manages to slip out of the restaurant unnoticed and begins his walk home. It's cold out and slow going, Louis thinks he must have a busted rib or something he's in so much pain.

It starts to rain halfway home and Louis wants to cry, his luck can't get worse than this. That is until he makes it home, gets in the lift, reaches the penthouse floor and the doors open to the boys and four other people he's never seen before.

He walks in and stops in his tracks when everyone stares at him, Louis forgot his brothers had their meeting tonight, although, as he takes a look around the room he notices that the boys aren't having a business meeting. Edward has Amy the ambulance officer on his lap, Scott is holding hands with Amy's work partner Sammy, Drew has a girl Louis never met before in his arms and Harry, his Harry has his arm around a guy.

Louis realises he's walked in on some sort of date night and seeing Harry's arms around someone else breaks his heart.

"Louis?" Scott asks carefully.

"Um sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt your night" Louis says.

"Are you okay kiddo?" Drew asks as he and Scott walk over to Louis

"You're soaking darling" Harry says as he too walks over.

Louis notices the guy Harry is with glares straight at him when Harry calls him darling.

"I'm fine" Louis says

"What's happened, We thought you were with Noah" Edward asks as he comes over too.

"I was, we...I just wanted to come home, I'm going to my room sorry for ruining your night" Louis says as he dodges the boys and goes to leave

"Louis, wait, we can explain all this" Drew says

Louis turns around and faces the boys

"It's pretty self explanatory Drew, see you in the morning" Louis says as he turns to leave.

The boys sigh as they watch Louis go.

"Umm is he okay?" Amy asks concerned

The boys look at each other

"Who was that?" Jax asks and Harry notices the tone in his voice

"Louis, our little brother" Edward says with a defensive tone, Edward doesn't like Jax one bit and neither do the rest of the boys for that matter he's arrogant and not someone they want Harry with.

"Brother? He looked at you like he was more than a brother Harry" Jax says to Harry.

"Alright enough, I think we should call it a night" Harry says directly to Jax

"Yeah, we will leave you boys too it. Go look after Louis" Vanessa, Drew's girlfriend says smiling.

"Thanks ness" Drew says as they kiss

"Scotty, he looked like he was limping a little, do you want me to check on him?" Sammy asks

The boys look at Sammy concerned

"Um, no, it's okay, we will check on him and if he needs looking at we can take him in, you don't have to do that" Scott says kissing Sammy on the head.

"I don't mind it's our job" Sammy says

"Does Louis not know about us?" Amy then asks, it didn't go unnoticed that Louis had no idea about anything.

The boys sigh.

"No....we just wanted to protect him, didn't want him getting attached to anyone else, we didn't want him to get hurt but that was probably the wrong thing to do" Edward says.

"Yeah, I guess he's old enough now to know who we date" Drew says

"Why don't we do this again, tomorrow night? Nothing formal just pizza and you can all meet Louis properly" Scott suggests

The girls all chorus their excited yes's and Jax looks to Harry

None of the girls know Jax is Harry's submissive and he gave Jax a talking too before the dinner, explaining the situation. Jax doesn't have to submit to Harry tonight and Harry isn't liking his attitude one bit.

"Can you make it Jax?" Amy asks

"Yeah definitely, I'll be here" he says smirking.

They all say their good nights and after everyone leaves it's quiet while they clean up. Harry saw the look on Louis face when he noticed Jax and it broke his heart, he feels so guilty.

"We should go check on him" Scott says

The boys all nod and they head upstairs to Louis room.

They find him freshly showered lying on his bed in sweats and a jumper, socks on his feet he's shivering a little but just looking towards there ceiling

"Hey bud, can we come in and have a chat" Scott says as the boys gather in his doorway.

Louis sighs, he's in pain and his side is aching like crazy, he sits up slowly and the boys notice the wince but don't say anything.

"What about?" Louis asks, he just wants to go to sleep.

"Tonight, we would like to explain" Drew says as they all sit on the end of Louis bed facing him.

"Like I said it's pretty self explanatory, I understand you don't want me around and embarrassing you when you're on a date" Louis says trying to sound nonchalant, inside he's actually really hurt, his brothers don't want him around and it hits hard.

"No kid, that's not it at all, we just wanted to protect you, to keep you from getting hurt and we see that now you're old enough to understand things a bit better" Scott says.

"How were you protecting me by keeping your lives seperate from me?" Louis asks

"We didn't want you getting attached to any of our girlfriends, incase it didn't work out and they left and you were already smitten, it would be like losing someone close to you...again" Edward says

"Look, I appreciate that and I understand but I'm not 8 anymore, I know you guys date people, I know you have relationships. But to come home tonight and see you all laughing and having fun without me, just made me realise how much of a burden I really am to you guys. It hurt that I wasn't included but then I thought about it and it makes sense that you don't want me around" Louis says.

"That's not true Louis, we just wanted to protect you, honestly. We love you so much and miss having you around you've been distant lately and we're sorry if it's our fault" Edward says.

Louis doesn't want to get into everything right now, he's just over it all and wants to go to sleep, hopefully his pain will be gone tomorrow.

"What happened tonight, why did you leave Noah's?" Harry then asks he's watching Louis closely and noticed something isn't right, he looks pale and is fidgety like he's in pain.

Louis looks at Harry in the eyes, and Harry feels the pain, he sees how much pain is behind Louis eyes and he knows he's part of the cause, the last thing Harry wanted was Louis to see him with Jax, Jax is nothing to Harry compared to Louis and he needs Louis to know that. Harry needs to know what went on tonight first though and why Louis might be hurt.

Louis fidgets with his jumper sleeves and looks away from the boys

"Did you get in a fight?" Drew asks carefully

"No, nothing like that I just... we went to dinner and the football team showed up and Rhys was there and I didn't want to be there okay I just wanted to come home" Louis says defensively

"Okay bud, that's fine, you're not in trouble we just want to make sure you're okay" Scott says

"I'm fine, I'm just tired, I want to go to bed" Louis says, he doesn't look any of the boys in the eyes.

"Okay, sure kiddo" Edward says as the boys all start to get up.

"We've invited everyone back tomorrow night for pizza Lou, we would like to introduce you to our partners if you're okay with that. We are all pretty serious now and we want you to be part of that side of our lives" Scott says carefully.

"You didn't have to do that, really" Louis says

"We know, but we want to" Edward says.

Louis nods and the boys kiss Louis goodnight and go to leave, apart from Harry.

When the boys are gone Louis turns to Harry who's sitting facing Louis, they just stare at each other before Louis looks down at his hands.

"What's his name?" Louis asks quietly

Harry sighs

"Jax" he says softly

Louis nods, he realises this guy is who Harry left him for, who Harry wanted to be with over Louis

"I'm tired Harry" Louis says trying to hold his tears back

"Sweetheart" Harry starts

"Please, this is already hard enough Harry, please" Louis says quietly

Harry closes his eyes and breathes deeply, he is the biggest jerk on the planet and never wanted to hurt Louis like this.

"you're always going to come first Louis, please, I need you to know that" Harry says

Louis meets his eyes and Harry can see his tears

"Don't say things like that Harry, that makes it hurt so much worse when it ends up being not true" Louis says.

He moves off the bed and winces as he pulls his covers back about to hop into bed.

"Are you hurt?" Harry asks concerned as he's up next to Louis in a second

"Physically or emotionally?" Louis asks

"Darling" Harry says

"I'm fine Harry please, just leave me alone" Louis says and Harry sighs.

He kisses Louis on the head and leaves the room.

"I love you darling, have a good sleep, you know where I am if you need me" Harry says and then he is out the door.

Louis climbs into bed and cries himself to sleep, everything seems to be crumbling around him and he doesn't know how to handle it all.