CHAPEL HILL - Seventeen-year-old Rodney Torain felt some weight on his broad shoulders after the death of his best friend, Atlas Fraley, on Aug. 12.

In an interview last summer, Torain said he typically rode with Fraley and their fellow defensive player Antonio Rone to and from football practices and games. If they had ridden together that day, Torain said, he would have made sure Fraley got medical treatment.

Three months later Torain is dead, after a gold or silver sedan sideswiped the car he was riding in, then sped away from the scene, a state trooper said.

"It still seems like a dream, both of them," said Fraley's mother Melinda, who only last week blew up a photograph of the pair and two other friends to make a poster and screenprint for a throw pillow.

They were gifts for Rodney, whom she had expected for dinner and football on TV Sunday. He had come almost every weekend since his best friend's death.

"We buried Atlas on Aug. 16, and Rodney died on Nov. 16," said Atlas' father, David.

"And Atlas died before the football season started, and Rodney died after the football season ended," said Melinda. "They're together now."

Driver Ashley Bynum, 18, Bynum, and another passenger, Laticia Farrington, 17, were taking Torain home around 4 a.m. Sunday when they noticed the sedan following closely. The sedan then passed them over a double-yellow line and ran them off the road and into a tree. Torain was not wearing a seatbelt.

Bynum and Farrington, both of Chapel Hill, were wearing seat belts. Both were treated for minor injuries at UNC Hospitals and released.

The Highway Patrol urges anyone who knows of a gold or silver sedan such as an Acura or Honda with damage to its front right passenger side to call (919) 570-6809 or (336) 334-5500.

They are particularly interested in witnesses who may have seen such a vehicle being driven recklessly around Old Greensboro Road.

The Patrol has also alerted area body shops to be on the lookout for damaged vehicles matching that description.

Clendenin said the troopers are investigating whether the attack was an incident of road rage. They have received information that the vehicle might have intentionally struck Bynum's 2003 Nissan before speeding away.

Now grieving for Torain, Fraley's parents are still seeking answers in their own son's death.

The state Office of Emergency Medical Services is investigating whether an Orange County paramedic followed protocol in responding to a 911 call made by Atlas Fraley hours before his death, but state health and human services department spokesman Jim Jones said investigators are awaiting the results of Fraley's autopsy before completing the report.

David Fraley said Durham attorney Donald Strickland is also investigating and has advised the family not to discuss what it knows of the circumstances surrounding their son's death. Strickland's son Peyton was shot to death by a New Hanover County sheriff's deputy in Wilmington two years ago. A $2.45 million settlement helped the Stricklands set up a scholarship program for needy students.

'I would have made him go'

Fraley and Torain had been friends since first grade at Frank Porter Graham Elementary School. They had played organized football and basketball either with or against each other since they were 11 years old. They and their dates took pictures at the Fraley house before the prom last May. David Fraley worked with Rodney's mother, Deanne Jackson, in housekeeping at UNC.

"They've been just like brothers ever since they met each other," said David Fraley. "They've been inseparable. You see one, you see the other."

On June 24, David Fraley called his son to remind him about the father's birthday dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. Atlas was with his friend Antonio at the time, so Fraley told his son to invite his friend along.

"What about Rodney?" Fraley remembers Atlas asking. "Even though Rodney wasn't with him, he was still thinking about him.

"Rodney's been just like our second son," he said. "He's spent more time over here than he did at home."

After six years of playing AAU basketball together, the boys quit last year.

"We felt they both had a chance to play college [football], and we just didn't want anything to happen to them before their senior year," David Fraley said.

He said he doesn't even try to make sense of the death of his two "sons."

"We just basically leave it in the hands of God," he said.

'The Big Three'

David Fraley said Antonio is devastated by the loss of his two best friends.

Antonio had gone into his home to fetch Atlas a Gatorade after the scrimmage last summer. Atlas was susceptible to dehydration, but he left Antonio's house before his friend got back to the car. Antonio, who played just one year of high school ball to please his friend Atlas, is the last of the group their friends called the "Big Three."

"Antonio was the last person to see [Atlas}, and Rodney was the last one to talk to him," Melinda Fraley said.

Torain normally would have hung out at Fraley's house after the scrimmage Aug. 12, but he had driven himself to Chapel Hill High School to catch the team bus that morning instead of riding with Atlas.

After the scrimmage, complaining of cramps, Atlas drove Antonio home around 12:30 p.m., and Rodney called Atlas a half hour later.

Are you all right? Rodney asked him.

Yeah, said Atlas.

Are you sure? his friend asked him.

Yeah.

I'll call you later, Torain told him.

"If I went home with him like I usually do, I know for a fact that I would have made him go to the hospital," Torain said. "He would have went."

Two hours later, Rodney called to check on Atlas and discuss how the boys would get to the Carrboro High scrimmage at East Chapel Hill to scout the teams that evening. Atlas didn't answer his phone. His parents found him dead three hours after that.