{"id":2304,"date":"2007-12-12T04:36:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-12T04:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/2007\/12\/12\/as-much-of-a-relationship-as-i-want-it-to-be\/"},"modified":"2007-12-12T04:36:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-12T04:36:00","slug":"as-much-of-a-relationship-as-i-want-it-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/2007\/12\/12\/as-much-of-a-relationship-as-i-want-it-to-be\/","title":{"rendered":"as much of a relationship as I want it to be"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Steady hands, voices like light waves, dark hair mirrored between the tips of my fingers, always a variation of the same kind eyes. <\/p>\n<p>Backstage was downstairs, through a door to the right, then down a long nameless hall to the left so narrow I could almost touch my fingertips to each side. The room was that dark, unwelcoming, underwashed colour of the seventies that&#8217;s too depressing to be beige, with a large metal legged office table in the middle and a wall of long stage mirror with a bland formica counter running behind an open wooden slat pull-down door. Backstage was two toned, the laces of my corset reflecting behind me, our feet up on the chairs, his milk-chocolate hoodie given to him by a soundman somewhere where the ground never freezes and there&#8217;s no such thing as snow. Backstage was us and a pile of local newspapers that didn&#8217;t print our names. Taking pictures to perfectly capture his smile, making him look like a fashion model. How frightening. <\/p>\n<p>When it came time, footsteps in the hall, ten minutes, I wanted the boy in the hall to be wearing a severe suit, something governmental, official, bearing the weight of strangers. Instead, he was just a boy. Ten minutes. Okay, alright. Clear plastic water bottles, a small pile of clothes about to be pushed to the floor. Rather than helping, I slipped hands underneath his t-shirt. Soft dark fur, the sweet, thin pelt of a sleek sea creature. Otters, shape changers. Let them cry and they&#8217;ll return to their previous life, singing under the waves. Ten minutes. Hide his skin. Pen tied wild in my hair, body flat against his back, I hid my grin behind his shoulder. &#8220;Are you ticklish?&#8221; He pinned my fingers, matching my pleased expression in the silver glass, and didn&#8217;t try to do anything but tell the solid truth. S.O.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steady hands, voices like light waves, dark hair mirrored between the tips of my fingers, always a variation of the same kind eyes. Backstage was downstairs, through a door to the right, then down a long nameless hall to the left so narrow I could almost touch my fingertips to each side. The room was &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/2007\/12\/12\/as-much-of-a-relationship-as-i-want-it-to-be\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;as much of a relationship as I want it to be&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1342,1404],"class_list":["post-2304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-calgary","tag-that-mike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foxtongue.com\/dreampepper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}