I apologize, but I do not know what mouse input to use to dodge with. Am I supposed to keep the cursor from being hit? Am I supposed to click and drag the crosshair to keep that from being hit? I don't really know and I just die really quickly, all at the same time

Woa, this is a deep cut! It's been ages since I've thought about this, but dodging works but simply dragging the cursor over the growing circles to keep them from firing - one hand has to stay on your mouse to keep you alive, while you operate your keyboard (reloading your gun) with just one hand.