Falling by LindaMarie It's during college that she tells her. They're at UCDavis, and Tom didn't get in, so it's just the two of them in a little eco-friendly town full of strangers. Dee's starting to get into dancing, and Jenny wants to be a vet, so they don't have a whole lot of classes in common. They make up for it on the weekends, when they get in Jenny's new car and just drive and drive. This one weekend, one of the last really scorching days in September, those ones where everyone perpetually smells of sunscreen and you have to roll the car windows up just to keep out the smog, they end up in Vallejo, where the air's just a little bit cooler and all the Valley radio stations cut out. And there's a Six Flags, rising right up out of this seemingly nothing town, and hell, Dee just got birthday money, so why not? So Dee pays for the parking and the tickets, but Jenny makes up for it by talking her into eating some greasy pizza and sharing a big puff of cotton candy. Sometimes Dee forgets how good things that are bad for you can be, but she supposes Jenny never does forget that, what with the ring still on her finger and all. Jenny laments the lack of a ferris wheel, but Dee's happy enough to stick to the hard-and-fast rides, where everyone's sure they're safe but nobody can quite convince themselves of it, deep inside. Jenny gets all girly about the fake-rickety wooden rollercoaster, and Dee has to say, "You know, sunshine, the ones that look the safest are usually the ones that kill you," and Jenny says, "yeah," real quiet like that, and grabs her hand, and follows her to the back of the line. It's been an hour, and they're almost through the line. Dee's been distracting herself from the annoying kid behind her by listening to Jenny ramble on about the horrors of lab testing, and Dee remembers being held down and probed and cut open like that, and so she pays more attention than usual. Then Jenny says, just out of the blue, "You know how much I care about you, right?" And she takes her hand when she says it, and Dee's too busy watching her eyes to do more than nod back. "Yeah, well, I care about you a lot. You know, a lot. I've changed since all that went down, and I wanted you to be the first to know, because I really, really want you to be okay about it. Understand?" Dee has to make herself talk, now, because it's been years since she stopped hoping and she's learned that friendship had to be good enough when you're after the girl who's always got a pushy boy on her arm. She puts her free hand on Jenny's shoulder, and smiles wide. "Yeah, sunshine, I think I know exactly what you mean." They're still holding hands when their turn finally comes, and they sit in the very front seat, hip to hip, and when the car reaches the top of the first crest, Dee looks over and Jenny's eyes are clenched closed, afraid to fall. Dee's never been afraid of anything she couldn't see, so she leans over and presses her lips against her's, and their kiss muffles any sound Jenny might make as they go over the edge.