I know, I know, don't come at me with your pitchforks and torches! I take full responsibiltiy for this late update! But let's all be comforted in the fact that Magic Mike comes out this friday, and all girls and I can take satisfaction in seeing Channing Tatum as a stripper! But for now, let's delight in the next chapter in Rayella's story! Last chapter was a cliffy, but now we can explore why Stella ran and the reason for the tite, Lightning Bolt ;) Now I'll shut up and let you get to it!... and let the curtain lift!

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING BUT MY CREATED CHARACTERS AND MY OWN IMAGINATION.

It had been 10 minutes since Stella left him on the dance floor to go to the bathroom, and Ray was getting worried. The slow song had ended and the fast music began to play again, and Ray arose from the seat he had taken and walked over to Wen and Olivia who were at the snack table.

"Hey, did you guys see Stella come back in?" He asked.

"No man. Last time I saw her she was sucking face with you." Wen said with a playful smirk and Ray gave him an unamused look, and turned to heads for the girls' bathroom. When he was walking the halls of the school he ruled, He saw a familiar flash of gold and short black hair that was heading out the door.

"Stella?" Ray yelled, but she didn't stop, she only walked faster as she pushed the exit door open. "Stella!" Ray yelled again now running after her. Even in heels, she managed to stay ahead of him.

"Stella!" Ray yelled again gaining speed on her. "Stella, babe, wait! Wait a minute!" He said almost pleading as he caught her arm and made her stop and turn to him; her face angled so he wouldn't see her expressions.

"Where are you going?" Ray asked, trying to catch his breath. Stella shrugged nonchalantly.

"I just don't want to be here anymore." She muttered.

"So you just up and leave without telling me?" Ray asked extremely confused and a bit offended.

"You were having a good time so I didn't want to make you leave." She muttered again, still avoiding his face. Ray tried to see her face by trying to take her chin to turn her to him, but she slapped his hand away. Now he was growing angry with her antics.

"I thought you were having a good time too."

"I was until you go and ruin it!" She suddenly said loudly now turning to look at him her fists in a ball.

"What? I thought we got over the whole 'nice' thing. I said I was sorry-"

"Not that!" She yelled and sighed sadly. "I just think your moving things too fast is all."

"What? Stel we were just dancing I don't get-" Ray began confused but was quickly cut off by Stella.

"Ray I know what you were going to say and you don't understand what was about to come out of your mouth." Stella said quickly and panicky, making Ray even more confused. "It's going to change everything and I like everything just the way it is! Why do things have to change?" Stella said persistently.

"Stella, can you please tell me what the hell you're talking about?" Ray yelled back. Stella became quiet and fumbled with her fingers. "When the hell did she become so nervous and jittery?" Ray thought to himself.

"…You were going to tell me that-" She paused. Ray was growing impatient.

"Yes?" He insisted.

"…That you love me." Ray froze as Stella looked up into his face. She looked sheepish, and scared. He knew what she was expecting: for him to yell or brush off her statement as false. But Ray knew it was the truth, and he was sick of lying and running from what he felt. Because right now, he wasn't feeling anger. It was worse. He felt hurt, and he was too tired to hide it. He folds his arms across his chest after a short silence and asked a question.

"Is that a problem?" The hurt in his voice not hidden by the hardness, but Stella, as stubborn as she was, was going to try her best to convince him to see eye to eye with her.

"Yes Ray! We're too young to know what love feels like, and when you say it, it changes everything. You can't take it back!" Stella said.

"So you don't feel the same way?" Ray asked completely ignoring her last statement. He was standing in a macho pose, and speaking with a harsh tone, but on the inside, he was falling apart. Stella didn't know what to say.

"I…I don't know. I really, REALLY like you Ray. Why can't we just leave it at that?" Stella pleaded moving closer and pulling his hands from their folded position and tried to get him to look at her now. Ray aggressively took his hands out of hers, and walked past her toward the parking lot. Stella whipped around surprised.

Wait, Ray where are you going?" She asked chasing after him now; it was like a game of cat and mouse between these two at all times.

"What's the point of staying? You were so ready to bolt at the thought that I might have such a strong feeling for you, so obviously, you don't feel the same way and I don't wanna waste my time." Ray said bluntly. Stella stopped in her tracks stung by his words.

"So…I'm a waste of time?" She asked hurt. Ray whipped around, fury shining in his blue eyes.

"Stella if you're not willing to even CONSIDER loving me back, then why the hell continue this? What'd you think, we'd just be in 'serious like' forever? You thought we'd be temporary and something like love would never come up? So what the hell do you want out of this relationship?" Ray yelled as Stella stood their numb. "Huh?" He pressed, wanting an answer. At that moment, Stella could see how much she had hurt him, and it made her feel ashamed and horrible. Ray dropped his fisted hands to his side and sighed.

"There is no word you can write with the bottom row of the keyboard." Stella muttered randomly.

"What?"

"Random fact: there is no word you can write with the bottom row of the keyboard." Ray sighed annoyed.

"Stella, I'm not playing this with you." Ray refused trying to walk away.

"Tell me a random fact Ray!" Stella yelled stamping her foot like a child. She knew how irrational and un-Stella like she was being, but she didn't care. She just wanted something that felt normal. Ray just shook his head sadly as Stella unwillingly teared up.

"I think it's time for me to take you home."

"No! Wait." Stella stopped him. Then a thought hit her. "I want to show you something."

"Stella-"

"Please, Ray, just come with me. Please." She begged as he avoided her face.

"Stella-"

"Just shut up and come with me!" She ordered, sounding like old Stella again. Ray brought himself to look at her, and he knew it was a bad move. One look into her eyes, he knew she had him hook, line, and sinker. He sighed in defeat.

"Fine." He said and they walked to the van. Stella really hoped her plan would work, and that after, her boyfriend would still want to be with her. Because if he didn't- well, she didn't know what to do.

"We gon need some water, cuz the roofs on fire, we burnin up, we burnin up!" Loudly sang a rambunctious- and slightly intoxicated- Charlie as he exited the school doors with Ray's shades on his face , his tie now crooked, and a glass of 'punch' in his hand.

"I love you Mesa High!" Charlie shouted to the night air.

"Okay man, that's enough punch for you." Wen said as he took the plastic cup from Charlie's hand, dumped it over the rail of the steps and into the grass.

"What time is it?" Asked Mo who was arm in arm with Scott. He looked at his watch.

"10 till 11."

"Oh crap!" Mo exclaimed. "I'm supposed to be home at 11 on the dot! My dad's going to flip if we don't leave now." Mo freaked as she charged down the stairs in her super high wedges.

"Yeah, and kill me too if you're late." Scott shuddered in fear. "I can't believe Brennigan made us stay late and clean up. It was all Delgado's fault." Scott glared at Charlie as they all walked to the empty parking lot that used to be populated by Mesa student's cars.

"Was it my fault that I didn't know that Abby and Jenna were sisters, and they had the impression that I would be giving them both backstage passes to our tour and to meet our opening act Karmin, and when they found out only one could go, they attacked me and knocked over the snack table spilling caramel corn and punch all over Brennigan and he stopped the dance early because they started to maul each other after me?" Charlie explained gasping for air after no pauses in his speech. They all stopped to look at him.

"Yes!" They shouted simultaneously. Charlie pouted his lips and snapped his fingers in a z-formation.

"Well ex-cuse me." He said with attitude.

"Let's just stop blaming Charlie and figure out where Stella and Ray went. I haven't seen them since Ray went to go look for her. I'm worried." Olivia said.

"Don't worry about them. They probably went to go somewhere to explore 'sacred regions' if you get what I'm sayin." Scott wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and Mo made a disgusted face.

"Images I did NOT need to imagine." She said mentally shaking the ideas out of her head.

"Well wherever they went, I don't know how their getting home without the-" Scott stopped short as they came to the parking space where their van was supposed to be and found it empty.

"Umm… dude-" Wen started but Charlie excitedly waved his hands for him to stop.

"No, no let me say it!" He said as they looked at him confused. Charlie swung his long hair back for a dramatic effect and made a classic stoner 'dur' face. "Dude, where's my car?" He said. Scott slapped Charlie in the back of the head.

"Ow! What was that for?" Scott shrugged.

"I don't know. I just felt it was something Ray would want me to do in his absence."

"Speaking of Ray, where the heck are he and Stella?" Olivia asked bewildered. Wen shook his red head.

"This night is just getting better and better."

The car ride to their secret destination was nonetheless quiet. The only thing that could be heard between the two was Stella giving Ray directions. When Ray finally stopped the car at their end point, Ray was in angry disbelief.

"Really Stella? You brought me to Finely Park?" Ray scoffed as he angrily gripped the wheel.

"Just get out the car and follow me." Stella ordered as she tried to exit the car, but stumbled on her heels. She grumbled in frustration. "These have got to go." She said and stripped her feet of the annoying heels and threw them in the car. She waited for Ray to get out of the car, as he seemed to be having inner turmoil about whether or not he should do as she asked. She was growing more annoyed by the second and banged on the hood of the van aggressively, and looked at him through the windshield expectantly. He finally gave in and exited the car.

"Took you long enough." She said as he cut his eyes at her.

"You got something to show me or what?" Stella rolled her eyes and walked in front of him as he followed her. Finley park was the tourist attraction of Flagstaff, and could catch anyone's senses from the sight of the beautiful oak trees and colorful gardens, the smell of fresh flowers, the taste of beef at Mel's Hot Dogs (yes, he specializes in hot dogs too), the feel of the pavement when taking a jog on the path, and the sound of the Flagstaff residents enjoying the summer days. It was really a gorgeous, peaceful place to be, and where the lemonade drinking clique spent most of their time when it was warm. Tonight at 11 o'clock, although it looked extremely serene, the feeling between the two teens was more appropriate for going to a cemetery. The street lights were lit, and the park had a golden hue as Stella led Ray to her point of destination… a bench.

"Sit down." She commanded as she abrasively sat and reached under the bench for something.

"What are you looking for Yamada? Left your gum?" Ray said sarcastically as he crossed his arms over his chest in annoyance.

"Glenn must have moved it." Stella said completely ignoring his comment.

"Glenn? What, you brought me here to tell me you're cheating on me with a homeless guy in the park? Classy." He retorted again. It took all of Stella's might not to punch him in the crotch. She still searched as now she was on her knees ducking to look under the bench. Ray- who as a guy- was sitting with his legs apart, and as if not aware, Stella crawled in between them to reach under the bench.

"Wow! Stel what the-"

"Relax; I'm not trying to take your virtue." Stella snorted. "Aha! Found it!" She yelled.

"Great, now can you please get up? People will get the wrong idea." He could hear Stella scoff from underneath the bench. She crawled out, and dusted off her knees. In her hands was a small tattered old book that she held as if it was a sacred holy book. She took a minute before she sat and took a deep breath

"Let me begin by saying that I've never shown this to anyone, so if you laugh, I'll hang you by your toenails and let the chess team assault you with chess pieces." Stella threatened.

"Threat taken. Now hurry up and tell me what's so important." Ray pushed. Stella handed the book to Ray who gave her a questioning look before opening the front slowly. From the way the tattered bronze leather journal looked from the outside, Ray was surprised the pages were of all different vibrant colors, and were adorned with small trinkets like feathers, buttons, small notes, fabrics, candy wrappers, and black and white pictures.

"It's my Great- Grandpa's journal. I come here to read it a lot. I keep it duck taped under the bench for safe keeping due to the fact that my brothers believe my room is public access." Stella explained as Ray flipped intently through the pages. "He started writing in it the day he met my Great-Grandma in 1938. He was a soldier in the second Sino-Japanese War, and he met my Great-Grandma when he was over in China. He was patrolling and had lost track of his regiment. It was like over 100 degrees outside and after hours of walking, he was hungry and out of water. He found this house and he saw they had a well, so ran to it and started to drink. Unfortunate for him, my Great-Grandma was home and had a gun to his forehead as soon as she realized he was a Japanese soldier."

"Now I can see where you get you abusive side from." Ray said as Stella glared.

"Shut up, I'm not done. So anyway, she's got this gun pressed to his forehead and he doesn't even ask her not to shoot. He's so tired and delirious that death would feel better. The only thing that he asks her is if she'll please at least bury his body and not let him lie there and decompose without honor. And somehow, she took pity on him." Then Stella laughed. "If pity means knocking him unconscious and putting him in the cellar." Ray couldn't himself from laughing lightly with her. This put Stella to ease that he was coming out of his angered state, and continued.

"Long story short, she took care of him without her parents knowing for 3 days because if they knew she was helping a Japanese solider they would blow a gasket. And to be honest, they despised each other! My great-grandma still talks about how she considered several times putting that shotgun to his head again. He was stubborn and didn't want to be helped, and she was bossy and bull-headed, not listening to a word he said."

"Sounds familiar." Ray remarked with a smirk as she gave a small knowingly smile and knocked shoulders with him.

"But in those three days… I don't know, I guess something happened because they ended up liking each other. My Great-Grandpa says it was her food that made him fall in love with her, but in here," She said shifting her eyes to the journal, "he describes it as lighting. He says 'she was like a massive lighting storm that shook the earth of my world, and that even after the storm passed, I could still hear the thunder that was her voice.'" As Stella spoke, Ray was mesmerized by the look of fascination on her face when she spoke her great-grandfather's words.

"Anyway, before he went back to the regiment he promised to marry her, and after seven years of war, only communicating through letters, and extremely angry Asian parents, they got married and are still together today. That journal is all their letters, mementos, his thoughts on her while he was away, and how much he loved her. He gave it to my Grandpa then my Grandpa gave it to my dad and my dad gave it to me. It's the Yamada family love story I guess you could say. The oldest child of each set of children has to read it first before they started dating or even engaged so that they understood what love should be." Stella explained. "My Great-Grandma says love is like a bland muffin, but if you add some sugar and frosting it's a cupcake; and cupcakes are way better." Ray had to laugh at the ridiculous metaphor but had to think it kind of made sense. It was silent for a few moments as Ray took in all the information that Stella had just shared with him, and he wasn't quite sure how to react; but he did have a question.

"What's the point of telling me all this Stella? What does their love story have to do with us?" Ray asked lightly looking into her dark eyes. Stella took his soft, calloused, and significantly larger hand in hers and spoke softly.

"My grandfather had that lighting moment that shook his world, and he felt like living without my Great-grandma was unimaginable." She looked up from their hands and into his expectant blue eyes, and couldn't help her face from burning, almost losing her words from nerves. "Ray… I get these annoying butterflies in my stomach every time I see you. A sickening feeling of nervousness when I'm with you, an infuriating tingle when I think about you and a frustrating wobbling in my knees every time you touch me." She admitted, and bit her lip. She stood up from her seat and took a few steps away with her back to him to gain the strength to say her next statement. She turned around on her bare feet the cold summer air chilling the usually rough pavement under her feet.

"But, I haven't had that lighting moment." She emphasized "lighting" as she took the bumblebee necklace around her neck in her hands. "And until I do, I can't tell you I love you. I care about you too much to say it and not mean it. Can you accept that?" She asked anxiously. Rays face was unreadable to her as he was just plain staring at her. She wasn't sure if she just completely made a fool of herself and she was growing smaller under his gaze by every passing second. Finally, Ray rose from the bench and put his arm around her neck and pulled her into an embrace so that her face was pressed gently into the side of his neck so she could smell his familiar scent of just "Ray". She reciprocated by wrapping her arms around his lean waist.

"As long as I still make your legs wobble, we're good." Stella let out a laugh of relief as she could feel Ray's neck vibrate as he chuckled too.

"Really? You're not mad?" Stella asked still not completely convinced.

"Stel, I wasn't mad that you didn't say it. I was mad because I thought you were so opposed to the idea because you didn't think we'd ever get that far. Like we were temporary." Ray pulled back to bring her eyes to meet his as a sly smirk adorned his chiseled features.

"But if I had known you were waiting for lighting, I would've been upped my game." Stella laughed and cocked a black eyebrow.

"Oh, we have game do we? How come I haven't seen it before?" She joked. Ray didn't say a thing but just lowered his familiar lips to hers in a tender kiss that had both Stella and his head reeling after they pulled away moments later.

"You just saw it." He said, his words tickling her sensitive puffy lips with his warm breath.

"Hmm, show me again." Stella hummed pulling him by his hair into another searing kiss as Ray slightly took Stella by her neck to tilt her head to gain better access to her mouth as her cherry flavored lip gloss gave Ray his favorite fruity sensation. Ray's grip on Stella's waist tightened as he hoisted her from the pavement so that her forearms were resting gently on his shoulders as her fingers roughly ran in his golden hair as Ray's ministrations on her lips continued and sent tingles down through her toes that dangled above the ground. When they were running out of breath, and Ray out of upper body strength, he set Stella back down and they gasped for air. Stella ran her hands down Ray's chest and around his waist as she pressed her lips to his neck softly as they swayed in conformable silence in the deserted park. Stella loved how comfortable they felt there in each other's arms, in public. Who knew how freeing it was to not have to hide your relationship in a Janitor's closet?

"Do you have to leave tomorrow? Why can't you just be my groupie on tour and bring me Coco Puffs in the morning and throw me your undies when I'm on stage?" She half-joked.

"Unfortunately, I have groupies, I'm never a groupie. I'm too damn talented and good-looking." Ray smirked.

"Glad to know you still love yourself." She said. They stood for a while longer just looking at the moon, Stella leaning comfortably in Ray's arms. Stella sighed.

"I don't want to go home yet." Stella said. A light bulb went off in Ray's head and he turned his head to her with a mischievous look.

"Who says you have to?" Stella looked at him curiously and intuitively knew that whatever he had in mind, she was down for no matter what.

Wa-la! I loved writing this chapter :) So, do you think Stella should have said I love you aswell or do you support her answer? What are the lemonade gang going to do without a car? Well, vas a tener que esperar para el siguiente capítulo! (you're going to have to wait for the next chapter!) Before then, let me know your valued thoughts and tell me a favorite moment from this chapter if you would! You guys' reviews are the cherry to my banana sundae!Ttyl Fantabulous Rayella shippers! Go to the beach for me!

Allure xoxo