DYLAN BAKER, MSN MESSENGER CHAT TRANSCRIPT TO STEPHEN PARKER, JULY 2003: Been hanging out with Nick De Luca some this summer. He’s actually a really cool guy. Not like the jock types you would think. He says he isn’t even going to play football this year. He is still going to wrestle though. I’ve been teaching him guitar and he’s been wanting to get a band together. How soon do you think you could learn drums?
STEPHEN PARKER: Nick was a senior and had moved to Somerset back when we were in eighth grade. I mean we never really knew him from junior high or anything. At first glance you would’ve thought he was one of those preppy jocks. He played football and hung out with all of those guys, but he was actually pretty cool. Tall, kinda quiet and with a serious stare. This one time, I saw him kick this dude’s ass for bullying this kid that had autism. That only made him cooler.
For some reason, he and Dylan hit it off in one of their classes, and Dylan started teaching him some stuff on guitar.
BILLY POOLAW, SOMERSET HIGH, SENIOR, DEFENSIVE TACKLE: I’ll never understand why Nick De Luca decided to sit out his senior year for football. He was the middle linebacker position and he was a beast out there on the field. We were all set to win state that year. I mean we damn near got it our junior year. But this year was all but a guarantee. It was kind of a mystery as to why he quit.
CHAD “KRASH” KRASINSKI, DEFENSIVE BACKS COACH, SOMERSET SABRETOOTHS: I thought he had a really good chance to play at the college level. He led the 3A class in TFL yards his junior year. Had a lot of really good sacks. Seemed like such a waste to not play his senior year. No single player is going to make or break you, but I think it really affected our season. Our defense definitely suffered in his absence.
BRYSON VANDERBILT, SOMERSET HIGH, SENIOR; STARTING QUARTERBACK FOR SABRETOOTHS: I figured he was kind of a quitter. I mean we almost won state our junior year. We were destined to go the distance the following year, and he up and quits on us? How can you do that?
BILLY POOLAW: Bryson Vanderbilt threw two interceptions and had a fumble in the state championship. Our defense was solid that game, too. Honestly, I think that Nick knew deep down that was as close to greatness our team was going to get and he couldn’t take the heartbreak again for another season. After that, he just wasn’t that into it. Hell, I almost felt the same way.
SOMERSET REGISTER 11/xx/2003, FRONT PAGE: TURNOVERS ABOUND AND DEFENSIVE STRUGGLES AS SOMERSET SABRETOOTHS FALL TO MORRIS IN FIRST ROUND OF PLAYOFFS. 45-14.
HALEY ADAMS: Yeah, even though I was a cheerleader and everything, this football shit is Greek to me. They said Nick was good, but I thought he was just this chill, laidback guy.
STEPHEN PARKER: So, there we were, hanging out in the parking lot of the depot, when Haley Adams and Skye Herrera pulled into an empty parking space beside us. Nick had waved them down, gestured for them to pull in. So Haley jumps out and gives Nick a side hug and Dylan kind of stands to the side and gives a little wave.
SKYE HERRERA: I lingered back while Haley sat down beside Nick on the tailgate.
STEPHEN PARKER: I remember Dylan whispering, “I wish I was that tailgate.” He was kind of hovering around the conversation, laughing too hard at jokes, interjecting things when he could. His energy was awkward. He was awkward. In my head I was thinking he didn't have a chance, especially with Nick there. Nick’s coolness made Dylan even more uncool by comparison.
SKYE HERRERA: Stephen was the first to say anything to me. He said, “what’s up Skye?” and smiled at me. It put me at ease. My heart was racing when I was near him, though.
STEPHEN PARKER: Skye Herrera was there and standing off to the side. I didn’t want her to feel left out, so I started up a conversation with her. I knew her from computers and she was pretty cool, pretty quiet. She had a different taste in music and I was trying to convert her to some bands that I thought she might like, more modern bands that I thought would align with her tastes. I had made her a mix CD. She liked a lot of old school bands that no one else did, and I was trying to introduce her to the modern editions? It must’ve been something her dad pushed onto her. He was this kind of stoner dude from California.
SKYE HERRERA: My dad had a lot of CDs and he was always playing certain ones he thought I might like. Mostly 70s and 80s classic rock kinda stuff. I kind of liked that I was listening to stuff different from my classmates. I was glad I didn’t feel any sort of rebellion towards him in that way. It’s not like it was ridiculously obscure stuff, just stuff that he thought I would like as an angsty teen. Music was one of the first things Stephen asked me about that night. He asked if I’d had a chance to listen to the CD he had made me. I didn’t tell him, “Yeah, on repeat and I thought of you when I did.” I said, “a little. I like what I’ve heard so far.”
STEPHEN PARKER: Skye was a little awkward to talk to, but she was pretty cool. She was kinda cute, too. Why couldn’t Dylan be fine with dating a girl like her? She was cute enough and was going to have her braces off eventually. I thought that maybe something could happen tonight with the two of them if he didn’t have his blinders on. As for me, I wasn’t really seeking out a girlfriend. I didn’t know she liked me at the time.
SKYE HERRERA: Stephen asked, “So maybe you could make me a CD, show me what I’m missing?” I took this as a sign. Why else would he ask me that? If anything, it meant that he was looking for a way to continue to talk to me. He also told me to add him on MSN messenger and gave me his email. In my head, I was on cloud nine, but on the outside I was trying to play it cool.
HALEY ADAMS: Skye was so excited. It was cute. I told her to hold her horses, that we were just getting started.
STEPHEN PARKER: All of a sudden, Dylan stands up in the bed of Nick’s truck and shouts, “Let’s blow this popsicle stand. I say we go to Buster’s! Skye and Haley, are you in? There’s plenty of room in my truck.” Before you know it, we’re all piled into Dylan’s truck, but for some reason Nick’s driving and Dylan—that sneaky bastard—has managed to end up in the back seat with Haley.
DYLAN BAKER, CHAT TRANSCRIPT FROM MSN MESSENGER TO STEPHEN PARKER, circa 2002: Dude. I’ve found the perfect truck and my parents and I are going to get it this weekend. It’s fucking sweet. They won’t even know what hit ‘em when I hit town with this thing. I’m gonna get so many babes. It’s a ‘99 F250 quad cab with a bench seat in the front. Plenty of room, know what I’m saying?
SKYE HERRERA: Haley managed to pull me aside and tell me to play it cool, that she’d help me out. She said that in an ideal world Stephen would have already made a move, asked me on a date or something, but that he was a shy guy, that it wasn’t that he didn’t like me necessarily, just that he might not know how to break the ice. Before we got in Dylan’s truck she said, “We’ll find out by the end of the night if he likes you or not and for God’s sake if y'all start making out, try and touch his dick!”
She must’ve seen my wide eyes when she said that last part because she only laughed and hit my shoulder and said, “Through his jeans silly. Like this.”
STEPHEN PARKER: Where we were going was to this plot of land that belonged to the parents of a legendary upperclassman, Buster. I don’t think I even knew who he was because he’d graduated a while ago, but the access to the property was still available and the namesake remained. It was an unwritten rule that anyone that knew about the place had free access to it and no cops would ever be called. I don’t think the cops even knew about Buster’s and if they did, it didn’t matter since it was technically out of city limits. Only the county sheriff deputies had jurisdiction out there. You drove south on the interstate a couple miles and took the next exit and wound your way through some county roads until you turned off onto a separate gravel road that crossed several cattle guards. From there, you would cross a little creek and come upon a nice little gravel clearing where there were some oil tanks and a pumpjack.
DYLAN BAKER, CHAT TRANSCRIPT FROM MSN MESSENGER TO STEPHEN PARKER, circa 2002: We’re going to be the Kings of Buster’s this weekend. Dale hooked me up with a keg. I can keep it iced down in this shed my dad never goes into, throw it in the back of the truck, and we’ll be good to go.
STEPHEN PARKER: I didn’t really go to Buster’s except a handful of times. One time Dylan managed to pay this older guy from work to buy a keg for him and it was Dylan’s idea to bring it out to Buster’s and be the host of a big party. I guess he thought it would help his social standing and impress a bunch of people. Well, we get there on this night and there’s practically nobody there. You know how much of a keg two scrawny teens can drink in one night? Not a fuckin’ lot apparently. So on the particular night when everything happened, I didn’t have my hopes up that there would be like this bitchin’ party or anything.
SKYE HERRERA: I had never even been out to Buster’s before that night. I’d heard about it, but this was going to be my first time.
HALEY ADAMS: You got the sense that Buster’s was on its way out, that it wasn’t as popular or fun as it used to be. Going out there was going to be a crap shoot. Everyone was going to Humpty’s now. Humpty’s was a much cooler place to hang. Had a pool table and everything. But since this would give Skye a chance to hang out with Stephen, it was just whatever for me. I ended up in the cramped back seat with goofy Dylan while Skye was up front with Nick and Stephen. My plan was in motion.
STEPHEN PARKER: Nick was quiet on the drive. I guess he was always quiet. He was a stoic kind of dude. I “rode bitch” so to speak and got to sit next to him in the middle of the bench seat and it was a little cramped. Skye was in the passenger seat and Dylan, the sly devil, had ended up in the back with Haley.
SKYE HERRERA: It kind of seemed like a dream or something. You anticipate these events and the evening starts and it begins to happen kind of like you thought it would. Here I was, sitting next to my crush after he had asked for my email. His leg was pressed up close to mine. For someone who’d never had a real boyfriend, it was all very exciting to me.
We came upon several cars and trucks parked in a semi-circle around a small bonfire. People sat on tailgates and lawn chairs and hip-hop was playing softly from a vehicle stereo. Off in the distance, a guy shotgunned a beer.
STEPHEN PARKER: Jalen Smalls, Scottie Hargrove, and Bubba Morgan were there. Some girls our age: Amanda something and Tiara Phillips. There were these two interchangeable sophomore girls there, too. Briley and Miley, or something.
SKYE HERRERA: A drunk girl that I didn’t really know at the time appeared from between two vehicles and staggered toward us and started shouting. “Woohoo, Haley’s here! Gimme a ‘hell’, gimme a ‘yeah’! What’s that spell? Fuck if I know. You bitches want a beer?”
HALEY ADAMS: That was Amanda Beckman. She was kinda new. She was drunker than Cooter Brown.
STEPHEN PARKER: Dylan had a stash of some beers in an ice chest in his truck bed toolbox. We commenced drinking. He told Haley, “sorry I didn’t bring any bitch beer. Didn’t know y'all were coming.” She said, “fuck that shit. Give me a Heineken.” Then she frogged his arm really good. It seemed very flirty.
SKYE HERRERA: Amanda, the drunk girl, gave me a Smirnoff Ice. It tasted sweet and had a little bite to it. I drank it too quickly because of nerves. I knew I had to be careful. I didn’t want to end up like her.
STEPHEN PARKER: We talked and drank and talked some more. I smoked a Black and Mild that somebody had given me. The smell of the sweet smoke on the cool autumn air— I’ll still get flashbacks if I catch a whiff of someone smoking one.
Nick mingled around and talked to everyone. I laughed along and talked with Dylan and Skye and Haley. The sophomores kept to themselves and Amanda staggered around acting drunk and goofy. Nothing too annoying.
HALEY ADAMS: There we were having a good time, just chilling and talking, kind of a lowkey night, when all of a sudden, we heard a noise. The noise.
SKYE HERRERA: You know it’s unmistakable. If you’ve ever been on a haunted thrill ride in someone’s pasture around Halloween or one of those haunted houses, you know that sound. They always have one of those guys.
STEPHEN PARKER: It was someone revving a chainsaw, up on the hill. I looked towards the noise in all the commotion and saw this glowing green face, the outline of a person holding the saw above their head, watching us. I don’t know if anyone else had spotted him, in fact I said as much. “Are y'all seeing this shit?”
JALEN SMALLS, SOMERSET HIGH, SENIOR: Man, I wasn’t about to fuck with no chainsaw. I was shook for a sec, but once that noise started sounding like it was getting closer, I jumped in my car and started hollerin’ for everyone to leave.
SKYE HERRERA: The saw was getting closer, coming upon us. I remember you could even hear the footsteps crashing through the brush and grass.
STEPHEN PARKER: It took me a while to process it. Nick, he just came up behind me and Skye and put his hands on our shoulders and shoved us to the truck, yelled for us to “Jump in, now!”
HALEY ADAMS: Amanda was freaking out and darted to the right, then juked and went the other way, right into me. She knocked me to the ground and kinda fell on top of me. I just cussed at her and helped her up and shoved her drunk ass into the back of Dylan’s truck. She was rolling around back there, all disoriented and doing this panicky sob thing.
STEPHEN PARKER: I was shouting, “Dylan! Dylan! Where’s Dylan!” and Nick was like, “I dunno man, I dunno. He was right here.” I looked back towards the brush and trees at the base of the hill and I could see the face gleaming in there, coming closer. Making its way towards us.
SKYE HERRERA: That’s when we heard the scream.
HALEY ADAMS: Just this blood-curdling scream.