CARRBORO -- Antonio Rone wept for his good friend Atlas Fraley. Rodney Torain, sitting next to him at the funeral, gently chided Antonio, who with Atlas had made an inseparable trio of best friends.

If I was to die, I wouldn't want any of y'all crying, Rodney told 18-year-old Antonio as they sat surrounded by their Chapel Hill High School football teammates.

Rodney, 17, was Antonio's source of strength as the two dealt with the loss of Atlas. He died in August after telling 911 dispatchers that he was dehydrated following football practice.

Atlas' death had rocked the school. Rodney's death in a hit-and-run car crash Nov. 16 was shattering to Antonio.

Words were't coming easily last week to a boy who lost his two best friends just as the three were about to become men. Rodney's friendship had helped Antonio cope with the death of his first friend. Now it was Rodney's words that were helping him deal with the loss of a second.

"Be happy and just live your life," Antonio remembered Rodney saying. "Don't let nothing stop you."

Atlas, Antonio -- 'Tonio to friends and family -- and Rodney were the "Big Three" on campus at Chapel Hill High School. Atlas and Rodney were Tigers football linemen on offense and defense. Rodney was named the Piedmont Athletic Conference's top defensive lineman this year.

Antonio, a linebacker, played only his senior year for the Tigers just to please his friend Atlas. They had been friends since sixth grade. 'Tonio met Rodney a year later.

The trio played three years together on the Carolina Mavericks, an AAU basketball team coached by Atlas' father. The whole team was there for Antonio when his father died in 2006.

The three also played hours and hours of the Madden NFL video game on PlayStation 2. Antonio was always the Dallas Cowboys, Rodney the Washington Redskins and Atlas the Minnesota Vikings.

"They were always together," said Steven Moore, the Tigers' star running back. "It was always those three together all the time. They were inseparable. It was always the boys."

They would go together to movies, to Southpoint mall, to parties.

Rodney and Atlas would tease 'Tonio about his big head. 'Tonio and Atlas would tell Rodney he was fat. 'Tonio and Rodney would call Atlas "T-Pain" because his dreadlocks and pudgy face made him look like the R&B artist.

"There weren't too many hard times when it was Rodney, Atlas and 'Tonio," said Antonio's older brother, Shamir, 20. "They were always smiling."

Other players might come to the Fraley home every now and then for Sunday dinners and pro football on TV, but Rodney and Antonio were there just about every week. On David Fraley's birthday in June, the father told the son to invite Antonio, who was with Atlas at the time, for a family dinner at Outback Steakhouse.

"What about Rodney?" was Atlas' only question.

Antonio was probably the last person to see Atlas alive, other than an Orange County paramedic Atlas summoned. After a football scrimmage game in Wake County, Atlas was cramping when he dropped Antonio off at his family's Carrboro apartment that afternoon.

Rodney was probably the last person to talk to Atlas on Aug. 12, sharing cell phone calls as Atlas drove home.

A few hours later, Rodney and Antonio were standing next to Tigers head coach Issac Marsh on the sideline of a high school scrimmage game when the coach took a call from David Fraley.

Marsh walked away without a word and came back in tears.

Atlas is dead, he told the boys.

Antonio just walked away. Rodney followed his friend toward the stadium exit.