Tah-dah! Here it is. There's one more chapter after this one. Here's the climax, and next chapter is the dénouement. And then, all done-sies. This has been a blast! I can't thank you all enough for your support.

I do not own Lemonade Mouth.

Chapter 21

A few songs into their set, Stella introduced Ray's song. "And now, we'd like to premiere a brand new song, written by our new lyricist and apparently manager, Ray Beech!" The crowd applauded. There seemed to be some confusion from those in the crowd who went to Mesa High. However, the greatest confusion came from back stage.

"Our new lyricist"? What in the world is she thinking? Ray Beech was not about to be dragged into the Lemonhead crusade, even if dragged by such a beauty as Stella Yamada. He generally had a grudging respect for her antics, but this was too far. There was no way he was going to put up with this. He would march – er, hobble – onto that stage, grab the microphone, and correct her: "No no no, I am not any part of this band. I just wrote them this one song because they helped me out of a jam."

He mulled over the wording of his disclaimer speech, but he was interrupted by the song itself. He started to listen to it. Those were his lyrics and his original chord progression, but they took the song to a level that he hadn't even imagined. The tempo matched his intended tone perfectly. It was not the sappy pop drivel that he had feared it would become. They perfectly preserved the edge he had inserted into the lyrics, mostly due to Olivia's haunting voice, especially when she hit the lower register. Usually, bands would use their guitar or drums to give a song its edge, as they seldom have the gift of a dynamic singer.

And then they got to the bridge. Olivia stepped back, Stella stepped up to the mike, and Stella sang it. Ray knew that Stella had a solid voice, but this was transcendent. The bridge had the most emotional part of the song – at least, as emotional as Ray allowed in his lyrics. Ray realized, hearing Stella sing his words, what he had actually written all along. He hadn't realized it before, but that bridge was his declaration of love to Stella. Oh no, what did I do?

He had to hide now. But Ray Beech didn't do hiding. He had to do something, or sit down, or leave, or...

I was king in my throne, and life was good, so good!

Then, out of the blue,

You took me out of my seat, and put me in my place.

My place…with you.

He couldn't sit still. He paced. Step, crutch, step, crutch. Did she know? Did everyone else know? How could he be so stupid to put it so publicly like that? What was he going to do?

Then, fear settled in. How did she feel? Did she think he was a total idiot? She seemed to be possibly interested, but he still thought that maybe it was just pity-induced attraction when he was in the hospital. And maybe they were only playing the song in pity for him. Ugh pity. That last thought made him sick to his stomach.

But, could Stella maybe care for him, really care? Maybe?

Pull yourself together. You are Ray Beech, ruler of Mesa High School, founder of Mudslide Crush, soccer god. Girls flock to you, not you to them, and especially not this noisy freshman pest.

But his feeble attempt at a pep talk was useless. He could not deny it anymore. He had completely fallen for Stella. Good or bad, he had to know how she felt. He would find out, but there would be no sappy conversation, that was for damned sure. He would find out his way.

The set was over, and the band left the stage.

Now's my chance. He readied himself to face her.

Then, they went back on stage for an encore. And another one. And another one. The thing about being a hugely famous band playing a smaller-than-your-fame venue was that the crowd was incredibly receptive to you.

By the time the show was finally over, Ray was out of his mind. He had made himself dizzy from all the pacing, and so he wandered behind the stage to find a chair.

Stella was a complete bundle of nerves. Usually, that went away once she started any performance. But this time was different. This time, she poured her heart out, on stage, for the whole world to see, without even knowing if her feelings were returned. And the object of her affection was right there in the wings, watching the whole thing.

She was pleased with her little joke in the intro. She was hoping that it would annoy him enough to distract him from the song. She had caught a glimpse of him backstage, and he had looked pretty angry. Mission accomplished!

Then, as the song progressed, he started to pay attention. Crap! As the bridge approached, he was more and more attentive to the song. Why oh why did she insist on singing the bridge? But she had to. She had to be the one to say those words. She didn't want Ray to know how she felt, but she couldn't bear to hear anyone else sing those words. Here it was, there was no turning back.

Once she began singing, everything and everyone else melted away. She could only think of him, his commanding personality, his wry humor, his kindness to his family, those amazing blue eyes, the feeling of his skin under her fingers, that brief nano-second of a kiss, sleeping in his arms. She poured all she had into singing those few lines.

Then, the bridge was over, and she was back to reality. She couldn't help sneaking a peak at Ray. He looked horrified. Great, just great.

Stella was grateful for the encores. She could delay having to face Ray for a little bit longer. Then, the crowd started to dissipate, which meant that they were at their last encore. Stella took a deep breath, and she marched off stage.

Ray wasn't there. He probably escaped. Seeing him at school on Monday should be fun… Stella sighed and made her way behind the stage to put her guitar away.

She made her way through the backstage crowd, smiling and high-fiving the people she passed, inwardly begging to be through with this and home as quickly as possible. She rounded the corner behind a curtain. Finally! But oh no!, there was Ray, sitting in a chair next to her guitar case.

"Um, hi," she said, her heart threatening to jump out of her chest. He said nothing. He simply looked at her.

"I hope you liked what we did with the song. And…um…I was just joking in the intro…ha…ha.." She walked to her guitar case, weighing the possibility of grabbing the case and running out of there, case in one hand and guitar in the other.

Ray continued to look at her. He waited until she was right next to him. Then, he stood up to his full height. He looked down onto Stella's face.

She dove down to her guitar case, and she furiously worked the latches. They, of course, were not behaving themselves. She felt a hand under her elbow. It gently pulled her up. Stella complied.

Stella stood up and faced Ray. He put both of his arms around her waist. He leaned down toward her, never breaking eye contact. His eyes seemed to be trying to say something to her, but he would not speak. Stella would be perfectly happy just staring at those eyes for hours. Ray continued to move in closer. They were now close enough to feel each other's breath on their faces, just like that night in the hospital. But this time, Ray took control, and he did not linger. He closed his eyes, and he closed what remained of the gap between them. This was a Real Kiss. There was no hesitation, no interruption, no thought of anything but each other. Her arms flew up and around his neck. She pulled herself closer to him, as close to him as she could make herself.

This was not Stella's first kiss. And it certainly was not Ray's first kiss. But for both of them, there was nothing like this that they had ever experienced.

If this is his way of letting me down easy, I'll be happy to take what I can get. She willed herself to remember exactly this moment, as she was still pretty convinced that he didn't feel for her what she felt…but…his arms held her tight…and that kiss! She was starting to feel a bit light-headed, not that she would fall down with how strongly he was holding her.

He stopped kissing her long enough to say, "So, I guess you figured it out? Or are you humoring me?"

"Huh?"

"I didn't realize how obvious I was when I wrote the song..."

"because it wasn't obvious when I went all emo singing it?"

"Wait. So…you…do…too?"

"Too!" He said "too"! Stella let her joy give her the courage to just say how she felt out loud. Looking into his eyes, she said, "You'd better believe I do."

Ray's entire face melted into an enormous grin. He caught himself before feeling like a total idiot and made himself calm down. Aw, hell. He let the smile come back."OK, then!" he said. He wrapped his arms around her, pulled her in close, and kissed her. He actually lifted her off the ground, not that she'd even know if she were standing or not.

Then, they heard a pronounced throat-clearing. It was Wen, with everyone else in the band next to him. As they walked toward the pair, Stella began to panic.

"What are we going to tell them?" she asked, turning around to face her friends. Ray did not let go of her. His right arm was around her waist, and his left hand rested on the other side of her waist.

"The truth," Ray said simply. Then, he leaned directly to her ear and said very quietly, "that Ray Beech is in love with Stella Yamada."