One Night at a Time

It's a bro night, he said. So she spent the night by the fountain, thinking of the nights she had spent there before. The broken nights, with the darkness falling on her like water, sinking into her. The happy nights, dreaming about the future and savoring the calm and joy that had spread themselves like cream, smoothing out all the bumps. Her heart beating to the sound of the rushing water. A bright peal of laughter from the other side of the street. The faint twinkling of a plane filled with people off to explore, none of them thinking of her as she was of them. Her feet dangle in the water. The cold ground digs into her palms. A tear stings at the corner of her eye. Minutes. Hours. She pulls her feet out of the water, puts her shoes back on. One step at a time. Up the steps, across the street, down the hill. A cold breeze. Music blasting from a room twenty feet away sounds as far as the moon. One step at a time. One night at a time. It's a bro night, he had said. It's a lonely night, she had thought.