Ooh have yet another Percy Shelley inspired ~thing from the biography I read:

Before he set out [for Oxford], his father Timothy gave him some worldly advice in the study with its pictures of Christ crucified and Vesuvius erupting. Tom Medwin [Shelley's schoolfriend] happened to be present, and recorded: 'He would provide for as many natural children as Shelley chose to get, but that he would never forgive him for making a mésalliance.' Shelley, the romantic author of Zastrozzi, the demon-raiser and the Eton atheist, stared at his father with silent scorn.

Obvs Shelley immediately goes and elopes with an unsuitable girl, and this conversation is standard vibe for our era anyway... but it's the "presence of a random schoolfriend while they discuss this" bit that makes me want a whole plot where parents are struggling to deal with a wayward son/daughter, and therefore (secretly?) enlist their child's trusted but more sensible friend to officially Keep Them In Line and out of trouble. Maybe this friend is less wealthy and gets paid for the arrangement? Maybe they are coerced into it? Maybe they actually agree with the parents and will help cockblock said friend for their own good? Maybe they get caught in the middle and have to keep making up cover stories for their friend's shenanigans? IDK, it's funny any way you do it.