Chapter Text
George Russell liked his dignity intact, thank you very much. But he also liked having money... Not the rich rich type of money; he was far from that, but enough to pay for his flat and other expenses. And currently, he definitely didn't have enough for it.
He'd been sending in applications for all kinds of positions since the end of the summer, but none of them had been successful. During the summer, he'd managed to work at some tech company, which was amazing since he was an IT major in his third year. But he actually wanted to attend at least half of his classes, so he had to cut down on his working hours, and that left him with a really pathetic paycheck. That's why he'd been looking for a while now; two months to be exact.
Alex offered to help him get a job at the same bar Lando was occasionally having DJ gigs, but George looked him dead in the eyes and told him that while he appreciates the effort, he would rather starve to death on the streets than work at impossible hours while surrounded by drunk idiots.
"You reckon I should make an OnlyFans account?" George suddenly looked up from his laptop at his best friend, who was sprawled out on his couch.
Supposedly, Alex was at George's place to work on some assignment too, but clearly even the ceiling was more entertaining.
"This desperate?" Alex asked back, not really fazed by the idea. "It might work, you have a pretty face and everything," he added when George just scoffed as a reply to his question.
"I know, Alex, that technically I look good enough for it..."
"Then why are we not registering you right now?"
"Because I would prefer to not sacrifice my dignity just to pay rent," George glared at him.
"Then why ask?" he huffed.
"I need money, hello?"
George definitely had his own logic. No doubt in that. And when Alex finally thought he finally had it all figured out, George would come with stuff like this; asking hypothetical questions, somehow genuinely looking like he'd do it. Then, when Alex decided to support him, he'd tell Alex he'd never do it, and why on earth would Alex even assume that.
"You can always just become a sugar baby," Alex shrugged after a few minutes of silence.
"And shag old hags? No thanks," George scoffed. "Not only would my pride and dignity die a painful death, but I would actually have to interact with someone."
Alex decided to just bite his tongue before he accidentally told George he could be such an idiot sometimes.
"You think people would watch it if I just uploaded a video of me explaining some IT stuff while half-naked?" George hummed after a while. "I think I saw some statistics a while ago about a girl who did something similar, uploaded to same video to YouTube and PornHub, and she got way more views on PornHub, and better money, too."
"Do it," Alex said simply, already on board with the idea. Or he just didn't feel like putting effort into entertaining George's idea, which he'd refuse to do in a few minutes.
"That would require showing my face, though, no?"
"Could wear a mask."
"Ruins the overall picture. Besides, my face is one of my many good features..."
"Ever heard of half-naked cleaning?" Alex asked instead.
"Of what?"
"Basically, you go to random people's place and clean for them, like any other person would. You just do it half-naked. And they pay more," Alex explained. "Lando was really into the idea before the DJ thing started working out. But he also kinda gave up on it when he realised he'd actually have to clean."
That earned an almost laugh like sound from George.
"I'm choosing OnlyFans over that, sorry. Easier. But I'd have to promote myself... fuck," George groaned into his hands.
"So, half-naked cleaning?" Alex grinned, still entertained by the memory of Lando's dilemma about the same thing.
"Not desperate enough..." George said, and sounded almost genuinely devastated by it.
"But desperate enough to do porn?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Not desperate enough for anything. I want a proper job," George finally admitted.
"I give up. I love you, George, but I give up," Alex sighed.
The truth was, that George didn't even want a proper job. He wanted his original job back at the tech company along with his original schedule. But that wasn't possible with his current schedule at the university.
After that, silence settled between them, not awkward or anything, just George went back to doing whatever on his laptop. He was either still browsing job opportunities, working on an assignment, or just reading some lecture's material to be prepared for the next days.
Alex was still sprawled out on the couch, but now he grabbed one of those nice cushions, that his friend adored, because they matched the walls of the living room walls perfectly, and stuffed it under his head. Thankfully, George didn't notice it, because he might've thrown a tantrum over it...
"Lando wants to come over because his roommate is being annoying, whatever that means," Alex spoke up, reading his latest message from their shared friend.
"I take it he's already on his way here..."
"Most likely," he nodded.
Not surprisingly, George was right. About fifteen minutes later, Lando barged through the front door, immediately kicking off his sneakers. At least he was considerate about George's wish to keep the flat as clean as possible.
"I'm gonna strangle him! Suffocate him with a pillow in his sleep!" Lando started talking the moment he was inside the house. Presumably about his roommate in the dormitories.
"What did that poor Australian guy do this time? Took a breath too loudly?" George glanced up from his laptop.
"Yes!" Lando agreed immediately. "Well, no. Not actually, but that too."
"Maybe you should just tell him he's annoying you instead of plotting his death," George offered. "But that's just an idea..."
Too bad Alex had already sat up on the couch to make place for Lando, and he looked rather eager to hear the newest update on their relationship.
As usual, Lando had decided to live in the dorms again this year, but he forgot his previous roommate graduated so he'd get a new one. A very, apparently, annoying one. So, in the past two months or so, he was constantly complaining about him to George and Alex... and basically anyone else who'd listen.
"You won't believe this," Lando started his ranting as he flopped down onto the couch. "He asked me if I wanted coffee!"
"That's nice, no?" Alex looked back at him, rather confused.
"No! I want a good night's sleep! Not coffee at four in the afternoon!" Lando replied with far more emotion than necessary. "But I can't sleep because of him. Because obviously he needs to do his damned assignments until three in the fucking morning!"
"Ever tried communicating?" George suggested, like Lando was the idiot not said roommate. "You know, since that's also your major,"
"I don't want communication. Or coffee. I want to sleep! At a normal time, like a normal person,"
"You're far from a normal person, though..."
Lando didn't even bother acting offended at Alex's comment, he just kept talking.
"I'm literally sleep deprived because of him! And he has the nerve to ask if I want coffee! Can you believe it?"
Obviously, he didn't want any actual response to that, he didn't even give enough time for the other two to open their mouth.
"I was peacefully trying my best to act like I was studying, when he suddenly stood up from his desk and asked me. Like what the fuck, mate?"
"Lando, maybe he noticed you were tired and he attempted to help," Alex offered an explanation.
"Too bad I don't want his help. I want sleep!"
"You're worse than George," Alex sighed.
"Hey!" George gave him a death glare at that. Which would make any other person reconsider their life choices, but Alex was used to it after being friends since they were little kids.
"What did you do?" Lando tilted his head curiously.
"He asked if he should do porn."
"I did NOT ask that!" George protested. "I was merely toying with the idea of making an OnlyFans so I wouldn't starve to death while preferably continuing to live in this flat and not on the streets."
"I vote for the porn," Lando raised his hand like they were actually voting for something.
"I am NOT doing porn!" George said in an exasperated voice.
"Why?" And Lando genuinely looked sad about the fact his friend didn't want to start a porn career.
"Why don't you just keep talking about poor Oscar?" George asked in desperation to change the topic. Which worked perfectly, because Lando started listing all his roommate's wrongdoings since day one.
The list included serious offenses like waking up early, going to gym regularly and having more muscles than Lando. Not leaving out how Oscar dared to study whenever Lando was in the room too, and even worse, he was most likely having better grades than Lando, even though engineering was definitely harder than Lando's major. And now, the new addition, asking if Lando wanted coffee.
"Ever thought he's just trying to be friendly? Since, you know, you'll be sharing a room until the summer, unless one of you decides to quit," Alex asked from the kitchen. As a while ago he decided to go through George's fridge in hopes of finding something to drink that wasn't water. His mission was unsuccessful. Apparently, George still wasn't drinking sugary drinks. Shame on him.
"Impossible," Lando declared.
"You're the impossible," George sighed and stood up to free his cushion from Lando's death grip.
"I am not. I'm literally so easy to live with! I just require peace and caffeine in the mornings," he finally let the poor, now wrinkly cushion go.
"Back to you, though," Lando looked at George. "What's wrong with the current job?"
"Nothing. Just not paying enough."
"Suck your boss' dick? He might pay you more then," Lando offered yet another sex related idea.
"He has a wife," George glared.
"And? He might be suppressing some homosexual feelings."
"Like you've been suppressing any nice thoughts about Oscar?" Alex asked, as he returned to the living room.
"I don't need to suppress anything I don't have."
"Yeah, sure..." George hummed and almost threw the just freed cushion at Lando for being an idiot. But decided against it; he was far too worried about its condition to do so.