Joey's POV

As soon as she heard her boyfriend yelling from across the room, she immediately let go of me. I didn't.

I looked towards the stage door where Lauren stood and with a nod of my head I signaled her to leave. It's not because I suddenly had a fit of chivalry and felt the need to defend this girl, that she needed to get involved in this. She hesitated, probably to assess the situation, but did as I asked. That was a first.

"Get your hands OFF of her!" he yelled again, rushing towards us. Good, his anger was pointed at me. Despite that I felt her entire body cringe of what I guessed was fear. So I kept my arms around her for support.

"I will if you will too," I said calmly.

That comment made him only angrier. Anna noticed this and started to push me away. She whispered, "It's fine, really. You don't have to do this." She looked at me and her eyes begged me to let it go.

He was with us in a couple of seconds and shoved me aside with more force than I had expected from such a skinny guy, but I managed to stay upright.

"I said, HANDS OFF!" he glared at me.

"Same goes for you, pal," I said to him. "You know, there are lots of things that I don't agree with and abuse is at the very top of that list."

"Mind your own goddamn business, Starkid loser." He turned towards Anna and grabbed her arm. I saw her wince but she didn't say anything.

"Hey!" I yelled while freeing her arm of his grasp. "You're hurting her."

He turned around and tried to take a swing at me, but Anna stopped him. "Thomas, no. Please. I'll come with you, we'll leave. We'll go home. Please!"

At that moment I heard the stage door open again and Lauren was back, bringing Joe, Dylan and Clark with her. She obviously told them what I got myself into and judging by the look on their faces, they totally agreed with my plan of action and were here to help me.

Thomas looked at them, then at me and finally he looked at Anna, who was silently crying now.

He seemed to realize he was outnumbered.

Giving me the deadliest glare I've ever received in my life, he grabbed Anna's bag and dragged her out of the room. Before they were completely out of my sight, Anna looked back and our eyes locked again. She looked terrified. I wanted to go after them, but Joe stopped me, shaking his head.

"What the hell Joey?" Julia yelled at me when I entered the dressing room.

The others were seated on the benches, awaiting my return. Meredith stood up and hugged me.

"You okay?" she asked. I nodded.

"Seriously, Joey. Why did you do that?" Julia went on. "What if you got hurt? You forgot that we have interviews tomorrow and that we have the start of our tour next week? Did you think of that, huh?"

"It would make a lovely sight though, seeing Joey perform with a black eye," Brolden smirked.

I rolled my eyes at him. But Julia was right, I didn't think of that.

"What was I supposed to do? Just let it happen?"

Julia poked my chest with her finger. "You shouldn't have hugged her in the first place!"

"Oh my god, Julia." I sighed exasperatedly. "You know I'm a hugger. I hug fans all the time! We all do!"

Everyone else agreed with me.

Julia sighed. "Alright, fine. You obviously couldn't know that her boyfriend would be there, I'll give you that."

"Actually…" I began, but quickly shut my mouth when I noticed the fierce look she threw me.

"Wait, you knew?" Lauren asked. Oh God…

"They were at our show this afternoon, front row," I explained. "We made eye contact during the opening song and her boyfriend immediately claimed her attention. After a while I saw him getting irritated and he tried to get her attention. She was enjoying our show and didn't notice, or ignored him. I don't know. But then he grabbed her shoulder, really rough too because I saw her flinch. That's why I chose her during Sidekick." I grabbed my coat and other belongings, because Julia was standing at the back door, looking very eager to leave. We weren't on tour yet but apparently she was already acting as our tour manager. We slowly walked towards her, while I continued.

"I shouldn't have done that, because he completely lost it. Luckily there were lots of fans surrounding them so he left her there. When she came for an autograph, I immediately recognized her. I felt so guilty."

Meredith patted my shoulder. "You don't have to feel guilty, it's that guy's fault. It was really sweet of you to do that." I smiled at her.

"I was so glad that Joe called her back for that picture." Joe's head snapped up when he heard his name.

"Yeah, I thought it was a good idea. She looked very reluctant to leave and we still had some time, so I figured…" He shrugged his shoulders.

"Of course she would be reluctant to leave. Who wouldn't be when you have to go back to such a creep," Lauren added.

We reached the back door and everyone started to put on their coats or jackets, ready to head out.

"Anyways… when I touched her shoulder she screamed in pain – I didn't scare her like she said – so I wanted to make sure she was okay. And you know what happened next…"

Dylan chuckled. "You should've heard Lauren when she came to get us. She was sure you were about to get your ass kicked."

I laughed with them, because it wasn't far from the truth to be honest. He was a lot stronger than I anticipated. But then I thought about something else… I couldn't get the image of her terrified face out of my head.

"What is it, Joey?" Lauren asked.

"I can't shake the feeling that I've only made it worse. She looked so scared."

Lauren hugged me. "As hard as it is, but you've got to let it go. You don't know anything about her so there isn't much you could do I'm afraid."

She was right. I knew that. "Yeah, but still."

"Ready?" Julia asked, and she opened the back door when we all nodded.

When we got in the alley where our bus was waiting for us, we heard some commotion and footsteps. I didn't think much of it, it was rather late so it probably were some drunk college guys who were making too much noise. But then we heard a woman scream.

The guys and I looked at each other and silently agreed to take action. We made sure the girls and our belongings were on the bus, before we went to check what was happening.

The girls protested heavily, suggesting we should call the police instead, but me and Joe were already on our way, with Dylan, Brian and Clark right behind us.