Introduction

         I was always told that through loss, you gain some… and not just some, but a lot. Maybe in ways you’d never understand, tiny little things that just might happen to make your day, or perhaps something major, one big thing that causes an explosion of happiness within your life. And that one big thing could bring along many tiny little things that just make you wonder if this is really happening. Am I dreaming? Because I’m starting to think so.
         No, I can’t be dreaming this has got to be real. But usually that’s how it goes in a dream. Trying to make yourself believe it is real, that in fact, yes it really is happening, makes yourself not believe it even more, and eventually it’ll just wake you up. Trust me, I would know, I’ve done that on many occasions. Even so, soon after awaking you still just might want to believe it was real, and insist who you met was literally the man of your dreams, to the point you begin to look for him. And looking usually in turn ends up in just giving up. He wasn’t real, he was my imagination. There is no such thing as a perfect male partner, boyfriend, soul mate, but just the man of your dreams.
         But since the day we met he’s been everywhere. His car, his facial features, even his name, incorrectly spelt. As simple as a car the same color, that rusty blue-green, the same make and model, just perhaps a four door rather than a two. Or walking down the street (even though he lived miles and miles away) I’d see a shorter man, not much taller than myself with a bushy dark brown beard and those squinty brown eyes… But his name showing up everywhere? That was too much of a coincidence.  Dylan… Why was everyone’s name Dylan lately? Any one that just happened to pop up… Or his last name, showing up in different variations of spellings on common social networking sites. Sure, many people have the same last name I’d imagine, but all the sudden it was just going to pop up everywhere? A coincidence, just let me believe that is all that it was…
          “Well it’s a beautiful thing when you love somebody, yeah, and I love somebody…” the song that was currently playing sang while I tried my hardest to hold back the tears. Why was it all the sudden bothering me? Sure, Tyler broke up with me, but what was I going to do? Nothing. There was nothing I could do. He said his goodbyes, and that was that. There was no more. Even so, my feelings for him had run dry long before, I just never had the guts to take care of it I suppose. But still the pain of heartbreak, the feeling of rejection… it was terrible. Maybe it wasn’t true love, just a fling that wasn’t meant to last, even with being convinced it was much more than that.
         "You know what you need?” He asked in a comforting tone. “A great big bear hug from Braden.” Okay, now Braden was Tyler’s neighbor at one point, before he got thrown out of his parents’ house for being a low-life kind of guy who would just sit around and shoot up heroin all day. I’m not going to lie, he was a nice guy, but a little too psychotic for me handle all of the time. But hey, he was just trying to help me cheer up, and I figured that was nice, so I told him he could join me in my little walk to keep me company for a while. “One thing though, my buddy Dylan is with me, he’s giving me a ride. I hope you don’t mind.”All I could think was how I was going to deal with Braden and his friend Dylan, assuming he was just as bad. But that was when I realized you shouldn’t always make assumptions about people you don’t know… especially because they could just possibly turn out to be the nicest person you’ve ever talked to. But what was I to know?