“Everything alright?” Nally asked, looking around Jude’s mum at him.
“Hmm? Oh. Yeah, everything’s great,” Jude answered. He pushed himself up out of the chair and wandered over to the piano. “What are you two lovebirds doing over here?”
“Jude, don’t tease. It’s beneath you,” Jude’s mum said, standing and stepping away from the piano. “I was just telling Nally that I think you have the capacity to achieve as much as he has, but you’ve become so lazy.”
“Jude isn’t lazy,” Nally rushed to defend him, standing as well. “He’s done amazing things online. He has hundreds of thousands of followers, and he’s helping me sort my social media presence.”
“I don’t understand any of that social media nonsense,” Jude’s mum said. “I’m glad my son is doing something to help you, but I do wish he would help himself by getting a real job.”
“Being an influencer is a real job these days, Mum,” Jude said.
“It really is,” Nally backed him up.
It was Nally’s endorsement that caused his mum to reconsider. “Perhaps, but it certainly hasn’t done anything to help Jude earn money and move out of the house.”
“Jude earns a lot of money as an influencer,” Nally defended him again. “Don’t you?” he asked Jude, looking suddenly uncertain.
“It earns me enough,” Jude said, still bristling from what he’d seen on Nally’s accounts. “Not as much as I would earn if I was on OnlyFans.”
Nally snorted.
Jude’s mum frowned. “What’s OnlyFans?”
“It’s, um, it’s a website for, well, sort of live video interactions and things?” Nally answered, turning beet red and fighting not to laugh.
“It sounds like I don’t want to know,” Jude’s mum said. She turned to leave, but before she did, she said, “I still think you could be doing better things with your time.”
She didn’t leave any space for Jude to protest or defend himself. Not that Jude expected anything like that.
“Does she actually know what OnlyFans is?” Nally asked, eyes still bright with humor.
“God, no!” Jude answered. “But she’s smart enough to figure out it’s naughty.”
Nally laughed outright, leaning heavily against Jude’s shoulder. Jude shoved him in return, but mostly because his instinct was to pull his friend into an embrace.
“What were you looking at on your phone?” Nally asked, reaching for Jude’s hand, which still held the phone.
“Nothing,” Jude answered sharply, anxiety rushing through him again. “Just checking out some things we could do later.”
“Like what?”
Jude had no idea why he was lying. The right thing to do was to let Nally know he had a questionable fan DMing him. But Nally had maxed out on panic and emotion for the day. He didn’t need something else worrying him. He needed to have fun and forget the cares of the world.
“The Brotherhood is having Disco Night tonight,” he suggested with a fake casual shrug. “Do you wanna get dressed up to get down?”
Nally laughed. “Absolutely! That sounds like an amazing thing to do. And maybe we can both actually succeed at picking someone up at the club this time. It’s been ages.”
“Are you saying that going to bed with me the other night wasn’t enough?” Jude asked with mock offense. Part of his heart really did hurt to hear Nally joking about getting laid like that.
“No, no, not at all,” Nally laughed, slinging his arm over Jude’s shoulders. “You could use a proper date yourself, you know. You’ve been all tense lately.”
“It’s a lot of work managing your career,” Jude went along with the banter, steering Nally toward the door and whisking him out of the conservatory. “I’m not used to all this flashy celebrity stuff.”
“I thought all you did was flashy celebrity stuff,” Nally said, comfortable in their familiar place with each other again.
“Mycelebrity, yes,” Jude joked. “I’m not used to someone else being the biggest star in the room.”
“Of course, of course,” Nally said, nodding sagely.
