It could definitely (and should definitely!!!!) be 100% platonic! I defended the scene as being platonic at the screening too. people talk like that, and I feel like the both of them could easily just be conversing. and maybe it could be that one off moment for them, that little we’re talking about being intertwined, and maybe, here, with us? but it’s a moment people know when they’re questioning what comes next and around someone who they could possibly be attracted to. doesn’t mean it needs to be anything more than that.

I could see the hand as the border of platonic. the hug almost feels like him correcting himself like that’s not what we do here. they got a little caught up, but a good hug can do that.

here’s hoping it is platonic and stays just that. 

oh, anon, don’t ask me about Charley and these stressful white boys. (I mean, do you, but my thoughts are all such a jumble in that regard.)

I will start by saying that I don’t particularly like Bennington. As a person, separate from the rest of his slave owning family, he uses phrases like “black sheep,” and that endlessly makes me uncomfortable. He sort of jokes and plays friendly with Charley, as if them both being on the outs with the Landry family is in a similar category. Like, dude, your cousins owned her family. Your cousins killed her family. The thought of actually seeing Charley in a relationship with any Landry, near or far related, instantly activates my tear ducts.

so, there’s that. the betrayal to the family and just the ick factor of even considering being with someone who had a part in that history is astronomical. 

if he were some random dude on the street, who didn’t have a chance to make or break her mill, and didn’t have that history, maybe I’d be okay. if he were some guy she met golfing who charmed her with stories of being isolated from his family (an experience she could relate to), catch me writing random drabbles and doing headcanons. but that history crushes that possibility for me.