FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I still couldn't get my head around all of this.

Last year I have been one of those thousands of other fans in front of the stage, going crazy over seeing my favourite band - and now I'm part of their road crew. All because of Tim. I still remember when I met him last year.

I sat in a bar not far from the venue in Anaheim last year after the concert when these three guys came in. My ears were still ringing from the three hour gig and I was glad to enjoy the silence in that mostly empty bar.

The guys headed in my direction and stood next to me at the bar. "Yeah Marc, one hell of a show that was. I'm glad we're doing a double show here so we finally have a night off again." I heard one of them say. I turned my head and took a closer look at them, this last sentence sparked my interest.

Standing next to me were a brown and tan colored Husky in a black shirt and cargo pants, a muscular Rottweiler with the same shirt as the Husky and some stylish patched jeans and the one who I heard talk, a really good-looking German Shepherd, dressed in the same shirt as his friends and a simple light-blue jeans. I looked him up and down and noticed the bands logo stitched on the chest in grey and silver. 'Wow, wonder where these guys bought the shirts.. These look awesome - so classy.' I thought, my gaze still on the Shepherd, who was wearing the first two buttons of his shirt open and his chest fur sticking out of the shirt.

"So Tim, I guess you're buying?" the Husky asked. "Mmhmm, my turn tonight, Marc." The Shepherd, Tim fumbled for his wallet when his eyes meet mine for a few second and he spoke up. "Aehm, is anything wrong?" I slowly shook my head, still staring at this handsome looking dog.

"Nope, I was just checking you out ...your shirt! I-I mean, I was checking out your shirt! I-It looks awesome with that stitched on logo. Where did you guys buy these?"

I felt my cheeks and muzzle burn with embarrassment and for once was really thankful for being a Black Labrador as you couldn't really see me blush over the black fur.

By now the other two had turned around and gave me a quick once-over, both of them smirking and looked back at each other. 'Oh shit!' I pulled back my ears and straightened myself up on my stool, my 5'11" frame taller than any of them by an inch or two.

Tim let out a barking laugh. "Relax, mate. We don't mean no trouble. Just want to have a good night out." The others joined in the laughter and the Husky, whose name I had learned was Marc, slapped me on the back. Tim extended a paw to me "As I was sayin', no trouble We won't bite. I'm Tim," and mentioning to his friends "and these guys are Marc and Ben." "We-well nice to meet you, I-I'm Chris." I stammered. "Like I said, these shirts you wear look awesome. Where did you buy these?" Tim seemed to ignore the question as he turned to the barkeeper and ordered four beers. Then the Rottweiler grabbed me by the arm and pulled me along with the others to an empty table where they sat down.

I still was a bit dumbfounded by what was happening so I stood there and just stared at them. Marc looked up with that smirk on his lips and mentioned to the open chair. "So you're gonna stand there all night or what? Your beer's gettin' warm." Ben grinned and theatrically rolled his eyes "Kids these days..."

I shot him a quick glare as I sat down "Who you're calling a kid, eh?" I hated being called a kid. After all I just finished College and was enjoying the time off until I had to look for a job. Again it was Tim, who spoke up "Hey, hey give him a break. C'mon Chris - grab a beer." and slid a bottle in my direction. After taking a few gulps the mood quickly improved and we started chatting about the concert.

Marc noticed that I still was a bit absent-minded, so he turned to me "Jeez, our shirts just won't let you be, hm? To answer your question: No you can't buy these. These have to be earned..." I looked at him quizzically. "What do you mean, these have to be earned? Are you some sort of fan club or what is that about?" Now he got me curious. "Even better than that!" Ben said, "You're drinking with a part the band's road crew right now! I guess now you can figure how we got these."

My jaw dropped at Ben's comment. I couldn't believe what I just heard. Heck, I almost chocked on my last swig of beer! Tim slapped my back a couple of times when he noticed. "Whoa, now that was unexpected, wasn't it?" "You're kidding me, right? You guys look barely older than me! How is that possible?" I wasn't really thinking about what I was asking, the questions just bubbled out of my mouth.

Marc and Ben shot each other a glance, then looked at Tim. "What do you say, boss?" Marc said sneering "Should we tell him that you took over the job from your uncle and put in a good word for your old buds with the band?"

By now the question marks above my head must have become more than visible. I could nearly feel them dropping down on my head. "WHAT?"

Again a barking laughter filled the bar as the three of them burst out. These guys made less and less sense the longer we sat together. Tim leaned against my arm, paw on my shoulder and shook with laughter. "Chris, you're so hilarious!" he managed to say between fits and I couldn't help but join in. Ben mentioned over to the barman to prepare another round and stumbled over laughing to get the bottles. When he came back, the others had calmed down enough and we clinked bottles and took some sips.

They told me how Tim's uncle Mike was one of the first roadies to tour with the band, having known Dexter and Greg since High School and took the chance for a different kind of career when they started the band, became successful and finally went on tours. When Tim was 15, his uncle would take him on a short tour of 5 gigs throughout California and that was when Tim knew he wanted to follow in his uncles footsteps. From then on he would constantly bug his uncle to take him along on tours when he had holidays from school and after he graduated from High School along with Ben and Marc, they managed to convince this uncle and Kevin from the band to take them on tour with them and they would work for free.

Tim sat there, a musing look on his face for a few seconds before his smile came back again. "Well, let's say more or less for free. They made sure we didn't starve out there and my uncle organized a camping trailer for us where we could sleep after helping set up and break down the stage equipment. So we hooked it up to Ben's pickup truck and followed them for the next three months and helped out on the concerts on the way. I can tell you that was the best summer break ever!"

"So you guys have been touring with them ever since?" I asked.

"No, no. We all went to College afterwards, but we decided to major in subjects that would help us getting a foot back into this. You see, we had like the best time of our lives during that tour and kinda wanted to go on with that." Marc explained, "Take me for example, I majored in light and sound engineering, Tim has a degree in event engineering and management and..." "And Ben majored in music and art." Tim cut off Marc, grinning. "He's the creative one in our little posse." "Yeah, and one of the few guys backstage who actually can read music, unlike certain others at this table..." Ben stuck out his tongue at the other two.

"Anyways," Marc continued, "We finished College last Summer and Tim managed to convince his uncle and the band to give us a shot and take us on tour again. When they saw our various degrees they wanted to see themselves if we indeed knew what we were doing and put two gigs together in SoCal where we should prove ourselves. To make a long story short, after these two, we were on. That was about last year and now here we are."

I sat there on awe and listened to their story. This almost sounded to good to be true. "Where's the catch on the whole story? This sounds, like, too good to be true." I looked Marc in the eyes, then at Tim, trying to find an answer to this from the looks on their faces.

Tim held my gaze, still smiling. "Looks like you don't believe us, hmm?" "Like I said, that sounds too much like a fairy-tale to actually be true. I'll get us another beer." I said and stood up.. Meanwhile the three of them huddled together and when I came back with four bottles of ice cold beer, they were smirking at me again. 'Jeez, what are they up to now?!'

"Well, normally we wouldn't do this but since you seem to be a pretty chill guy, we think it's safe to make an exception this time." Tim started, "We'll be at the Convention Center for the remainder of the tour tomorrow night before heading back home to Huntington Beach. Be there at around 11 and call this number." Marc handed me a piece of paper across the table with a cell phone number while Tim went on. "One of us will pick you up then, so you can see yourself that we're not full of shit."

Another smirk appeared on his face, a bit different from the ones they gave me the whole evening. I didn't think much of it and after taking another sip from my bottle spoke up. "Now that sounds great but won't that get you into trouble with the band or something? I mean, you can't just bring in random fans like me into the backstage area, can you?"

"Nah, don't worry pal. Like Tim said, it's not like we do this every time we meet people while out drinking. Besides," Ben chuckled and leaned in close to me and whispered in my ear "I think someone at this table starts to take a liking for you..." He signaled to my right with his eyes and my cheeks started burning again as the blood rushed through them as Ben went on "so I guess it's alright if we do."

That couldn't be true, could it? I mean, come on, there's no way that this Sheppie was into guys. With his looks he could easily have any girl he wanted. I bet they all fall for him, his toned body, the broad shoulders, the nicely defined pecs that were showing through the shirt, his well defined arms that made the shirt sleeves stretch a bit over his upper arms, these ears twitching ever so often, one of them black, the other one a light brown and these brown eyes of his that were so full of joy and excitement and something else I couldn't put my finger on, the gentle touch of his paws and that smile, that mesmerizing smile that played on his lips the whole evening...

"Chris? Hey, you alright over there? Hellooo?"

I snapped back to reality. Tim and Mark were looking at me a bit concerned while Ben chuckled to himself.

"Oh, sorry, I think I just had one too many for tonight." I apologized quickly. "I guess it's time for me to call it a night. This evening was a blast, especially the last few hours with you guys but I think it's time for me to head home and hit the sack." I yawned.

"Yeah, same here, mate! So, do we have a date?" Tim asked, his tail wagging slightly. The words startled me.

"Uhmm, yes, yeah I'll see you guys tomorrow at the Center." I hastily replied, hoping that they didn't catch on my embarrassment over Tim's question. "Great! See you tomorrow, then." Ben chuckled. I bought them another round and we said our Good-bye's for the evening.

Walking back to my apartment a million thoughts flashed through my brain. What were these guys up to? They were barely older than me, so was that even possible what they had told me the whole evening? Sure, they were great company, but wasn't I a bit naive to believe into such fairy-tales? The most dominant question on my mind however was if what Ben said could be the truth. To be honest, I had a small crush on Tim when I first saw him standing at the bar. Could that really be a mutual thing? I couldn't bring myself to believe that. Still that thought wouldn't let me be, running through my mind long after I arrived home and laid down on the couch after taking a shower.

'But what if...'