To echo an earlier sentiment: UMMMMM WHAT HAD JUST HAPPENED?!?!?
Benji suddenly found himself HOLDING PENNY'S HAND. ALERT SOS MAYDAY HE SO DID NOT KNOW HOW TO DO THIS.
..............................and they were still SWEATY!!!!!
Despite his inner turmoil, his body filled in the gaps for his brain, and a huge, goofy smile settled onto his face. Was it okay? Darn tootin' it was okay. (Although it was also scary. He had never held hands with a girl before, apart from in, like, kindergarten when they make you walk in a line holding hands.)
"Yeah," he answered her a bit shyly, giving her hand a squeeze in return and hoping she didn't notice the clamminess.
Potions? Who needed 'em? He already felt like he'd chugged some sort of mixture of Amortentia and Felix Felicis, you know.
But now the problem was... What was he supposed to do? Holding Penny's hand was great, wonderful even, but... Was he just supposed to stand there? Was it supposed to transition into a hug at some point? How long was he supposed to hold it for? Was he supposed to let go first, or should he wait for her? How would he know when they were done? Should they just... Talk like normal and pretend it wasn't happening? Honestly, Benji had absolutely no clue how to interact with beautiful, smart, super cool girls who were, you know, holding his hand. This was all new to him!!!!!!
He settled on swinging her hand just a bit. Not too crazy, just a slight rocking motion. Then he second-guessed himself. She was probably thinking it was weird of him to be doing that, after all. But... WHAT WAS HE SUPPOSED TO DO WITH HIS HAND?
Goodness gracious. Nobody had prepared him for this part of adolescence, that's for sure.
"So..." he said, feeling a need to fill the silence between them.
"Do you... Still want to work on Potions?" Please say no, please say no, please say no... he chanted in his head.
Darn it! What if she says yes and we have to stop and it never happens again? Why was that the first thing I thought of to say? Benjamin Jun-Seo Park, you ABSOLUTE IDIOT!!!!