(there is) no time like the present [n.h.]

part one // 11:34

In Aisling O'Leary's twenty-eight years of living, she has known two constants. The first being, she could never say no to people. No matter how hard she tried to, she just couldn't bring herself to disappoint the people she cared about most in her life. She blames that on her trait of always trying to please people. The second constant is that she was a settler, in every sense of the word.

She settled with her group of friends in secondary school back home in Clifden. She settled when she chose to go to university across the country in Dublin instead of taking the leap and applying to schools in her dream city of London. She settled with her marketing position at a publishing house when her dream was to be an editor. And, she settled with her last boyfriend of two years, Cormac Hayes.

When he decided to end things with her three months ago, Aisling knows that she probably should have been more upset over it. Truth is, she stayed with Cormac for that long because it was easy. He loved her at arm's length and she was okay with that. He gave her attention and loved her the best way he knew how, and although it wasn't enough for Aisling in the end, she sort of just let it happen. And when she didn't even shed a tear over losing her boyfriend of two years, she wasn't surprised in the least.

That's just how Aisling O'Leary worked.

She tries her hardest to ignore the constant ringing of her mobile from the inside of her purse under her work desk. It was Friday afternoon and she was practically the only soul in the office because most of her other co-workers decided to take the day off to prepare for this evening's New Year's Eve festivities.

Aisling didn't really think too much about it, to be honest. What did she have to celebrate this past year? The fact that she received an end of the year bonus at her job that she hasn't enjoyed for the past four years? The fact that she's single, once again? The fact that she's still living with her uni mate and putting off her goal of moving to London?

She pushes those thoughts away when an image of said uni mate flashes across the screen of her mobile.

"Niall, for the love of god, please stop ringing me," Aisling scolds, harshly whispering into the receiver. It's really no use considering it's just her and the unlucky intern who couldn't get the day off, but she does it anyways for dramatic intent.

"As lovely as ever, sweet Aisling," Niall starts, the sound of whooshing air in the background a bit distracting. Aisling can only assume that he's walking around outside, the sound of the chilling winter wind blowing through the phone loudly giving him away.

"Sorry, Niall. Just, uh, busy is all." Aisling lies and Niall doesn't even try to fall for it. She does feel a little bad for snapping at him, because it's really not his fault that she's in such a shit mood. And taking it out on her uni mate turned flatmate turned best mate just wasn't really fair.

Niall Horan crashed into Aisling's life during her first year at University College Dublin (the word crashed used very appropriately). She was sitting towards the back of her Art History lecture, a random gen-ed requirement her advisor forced her to take. She chose the back because she assumed she wouldn't be bothered, but then eight minutes after class began, Niall ran in with flushed cheeks and his freshly bleached blonde hair standing up all over the place. And out of all the empty seats in the entire lecture hall, he chose to sit next to Aisling.

He spent the entirety of the lecture fidgeting in the plastic seat next to Aisling, looking over her shoulder at the notes she was scribbling down aggressively. He didn't even bother to bring a notebook, let alone a pen, to the lecture. Normally, Aisling would find that infuriating. But when it comes to Niall, Aisling has found that most of the things that should bother her just, well, don't.

"I'm walking into the shops. Everyone's been texting like mad about tonight, driving me up the fuckin' wall. Did you put the group chat on mute again?" Niall asks and Aisling doesn't even bother answering, because of course she did.

It's not that she didn't like her uni mates, because they really were the best friends Aisling has ever had. But when they decided amongst themselves that her and Niall's flat would be the destination for pre-drinks tonight, conveniently leaving Aisling and Niall out of the conversation altogether, she couldn't help but grow increasingly annoyed.

But in typical Aisling fashion, she just let it happen. She blames it on that first constant of hers.

"Just while I was working. Didn't want to be distracted," Aisling decides to say, pausing as she hears the sound of an automatic door opening and closing on Niall's end. She knows he's probably completely aware that she's not that excited about tonight. But in typical Niall fashion, he tries to find the silver lining in every situation—even if he is feeling equally as shitty about this evening.

"Well, you're probably the only person in all of Ireland working today," Niall says, a chuckle added at the end to let Aisling know that he's just messing with her.

"That's not true. Sean's here with me, having the time of his life." Aisling watches the office intern sit at his desk with his head in his hands, clearly hungover and annoyed that he got stuck working the day of New Year's Eve. She feels a bit bad for the lad, empathetic to his cause.

Niall agrees. "What're we drinking tonight, Aisling? How ossified do we feel like getting, scale of one to ten?"

Aisling sighs. She knows getting drunk off her arse tonight is probably not the best move to make. But then she starts to think of her friends and how they seem a lot more bearable after a few drinks. She starts to think about the past three months of her life and how she feels like she's just taking up space. She starts to think about the last phone call she had with her mam, and how she's suddenly begun to worry about her oldest daughter. She starts to think about her future, and how she's not really excited about it at all, to be fair.

The more she thinks about it, the more getting completely plastered sounds better and better in her head.

"Whiskey. Lots of it," Aisling replies, sure and assertive.

"There's my girl," Niall says, and she can practically hear the glass bottles being added to the shopping trolley. "I'll see you when you get home. Let's just try and have fun tonight, yeah? Forget about all the bullshit."

Aisling agrees to try her hardest to do that for Niall. But she's got enough bullshit going on in her life to hold anybody down, and if she's going to try and get over it, she's going to need a lot of whiskey to do that.

And some courage—lots of it.