On the field, the Titans scored. The October Friday night erupted in delirious cheers as the home team’s margin grew to a merciless four touchdowns and a field goal. Bobby watched the cheerleaders begin another auto-routine, their breath visible from the chill.

He reached down between his feet and poured the rest of a mini-bottle of bourbon into his Coke. He reached further under the bleacher to find Stephen’s bottle, unafraid to use it given that Stephen had just been seen tearing out of the parking lot with Bobby’s girlfriend Lisa. Before that, Stephen had been brave enough from bourbon to have been caught making out with Lisa behind the concession booth. Bobby would need a similar level of sour mash courage to beat the hell out of Stephen later on.

A mile from campus, a dark set of tire tracks left the road through the apex of a corner, cutting a violent swath through the grass. Stephen and half of his Malibu were hung on a tree, while Lisa lay screaming under the other half at the bottom of a ravine.