All Chapters of The Art of Life and Love: The First Spark: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

                                      Prologue                                     ~~~~~~~  One time, there existed a young man who resided outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His name was Dillon Vera. He was sixteen years old, and neared the end of his freshman year of high school. Like many teenagers, Dillon had had a rough time. With his hormones and self esteem all over the place, it was difficult to find anywhere to fit in. Add in the fact that Dillon's best friend Dominic, Dom for short, had just moved down south, and Dillon was not happy. Dom was two grades above him, but they had been best friends since they were small.  Once Dom was a Junior, he got offered a course at some ritzy tech school for carpentry down in Texas. It was something he really enjo

.                    April 16th, 2010: Friday

Right after he had registered who had run into him, the mechanic had put down his bag and started to inspect the wound. It looked like a flathead screwdriver jutted out of the bag and he figured that's what got him, since there was a little bit of his blood on the tip. For a couple beats, Dillon glared at the mechanic as he looked at his elbow, not entirely sure what he should do. His brain was in chaos. 'What the fuck is he doin' here? Can't

Dillon certainly didn't expect this scenario. The one where everything went right. Perhaps he

Dillon hooked right off of Chestnut Street onto Main Street, and walked the couple blocks up the road towards the shop. It was a fine day. It was in the mid-seventies and partly cloudy with a nice light breeze. It had started to smell like summer,

Dillon typically sat as far in the back as he could. It was an ingrained habit to avoid the bus' camera, because on the bus home Kat, Dillon, and some buddies would mess with the bus driver and the other students on the bus. What could he say? It was good entertainment on the way home. For example, one time Kat rolled her chapstick all the way up and flicked it from the back bus into the bus driver's perm. She didn't notice until the next day when she'd apparently slept on it all night.

The community in which he lived was one that didn't accept those sick with that in their ranks. Dillon had thought he could maybe invent a girlfriend, or a girl he'd been with. Maybe it would make himself seem even

Dillon had awesome parents. He loved them to pieces, and they loved him. This he knew and accepted as fact, but he still felt unaccepted and unloved by them at the same time. He couldn't get close to them. If they found out about his sickness, i

"Hey Tony, I wanted to ask you somethin'"  "Yea kid, shoot." Tony replied as he continued his cleanup.

Every single time, Dillon thought with an eye roll, Kat had him figured out. Of course she would always and forever read him like an open book. He felt a pang of affection for Kat. She really did