Moving Forward in the Life of the Mac-Attack

3 months, 1 week, and 5 days.


This was the exact amount of time that Melinda and I were together. Now, if you compare that to other relationships, it's not a real long time to be with someone. However, if you count our fling at the beginning of the year, we were actually together for 4 months, 2 weeks, and 1 day.


If you really wanted to push it, you could start the count at our first kiss. If you do that, you can
say we were together for 6 months, 1 week, and 3 days.

Of course, that's pushing it a lot. Being that during that time, we kissed once and spent three months being miserable without each other. The point I'm making is that, while we weren't together for an incredibly lengthy amount of time, it was forever to us. We'd known each other our entire lives, ever since we were infants at the Temple Beth Zion Pre-School. So, if you count the entire time we had known each other, we had been together for about 17 years.


It was Sunday, January 3, when we broke up. The next day was the first of the final semester of my senior year...and I missed it. Now, I could do what most people in my grade had been doing when they missed school: blame it on senioritis. However, I wasn't even thinking about the fact that I was a senior and didn't care. I was thinking about the fact that I ended the only relationship that I'd ever felt was worth fighting for. Sure, I've had relationships before...but most of them didn't last much longer than a night. Yes, I had Dara Karpen for about a month and a half during my junior year, and I had Carrie Wilcox for, well, longer than I'd like to say. I had Laura Sliverman for a short time last summer. There was no doubt in my mind that Rivka Pasternak would always be available if I ever needed to blow off some steam. I could sit and talk about my romantic history for days and days, but what it all comes down to is this: Melinda Moskowitz was, at that point, the single greatest woman I had come to love. In reality, she was the only one who I was truly in love with. She was definitely the only one who I was still in love with. At that point, she was the only one I wanted to love.


However, the reality had hit me more than once that all good things must come to an end. On January 3, our relationship ended. It wasn't easy dealing with it; her and I shared friends, walked past each other in the hallways, and were still in the same USY Chapter. Three weeks after the break-up, her and I hadn't spoken a single word to each other. That was the hardest part.


"Have you noticed that since you and Melinda broke up, there's been a lot of tension at school?"


My best friend Ben approached me as we were about to conduct practice for our USY Basketball team. I ignored his observation and tried to keep my mind on coaching.


"Chad, you need to be a little bit faster getting down the court. Those boys from L.A. are a lot quicker than the guys we have on defense right now."
"Sorry, Mac."

"Don't be sorry. Just keep it in the back of your mind. Let's run that play again. Defense, be a little quicker on your toes."


I blew my whistle.


"Mac, are you listening to me right now?"
"I'm hearing you, Coach. Right now, I need to help get our team prepared for the big game against L.A."
"That's not for another month, Mac. And how good could this team be? Jake Josephson is coaching them, and from what Gahl has told me, Jake hasn't been too focused."
"Well, I guess we'll have the advantage."


I blew my whistle again.


"Bring it in for a minute, guys."


The team approached us and took a knee.


"We have about fifteen minutes left. Here's what I want from you guys: get in your lines and take some lay-ups for the next ten minutes and then run your laps until I ask you to stop."


I blew my whistle.


"Get moving!"


They did as I asked them and Ben started talking again.


"Listen, Mac, it's not that I don't appreciate you throwing yourself into your work here. But you're calling three practices a week and the team is getting worn out. When we started this team, we agreed on having one practice every Sunday."
"Schuckman runs his team four times a week. And look at what happened when we played them: they were better-conditioned and much more well-rounded than any of our players. We're lucky we didn't leave that game with our tails between our legs."
"We won that game."
"And while winning a game in the final seconds is exciting for most, I am more interested in maintaining a steady lead throughout the game's entirety. I guarantee it's gonna be us and Team Vegas in the Passover Tournament Championship. I don't know about you, but I want them to be the ones fighting in the end."
"Whatever you say, Coach."


His tone was questionable, but I figured it would be best if I just continued running practice. Once the team was done running their laps, I sat them down.


"We have one month until we face Jake Josephson and the Los Angeles A-Team. We'll get to enjoy a nice break after that until the Passover Tournament in San Diego. We'll either face the A-Team again or we'll be playing Maccabbi San Diego. Yes, the teams in California have cool names, but don't let that distract you."


There were some chuckles.


"We will be representing all of Arizona in this tournament. And, from what I understand, Team Vegas will be at the tournament as well. Maccabbi San Diego traveled there over MLK Weekend to play an exhibition game...and they got their asses handed to them. I have no doubt that we'll be playing them in the championship. San Diego and Los Angeles are expected to be low-seed teams, so we'll be playing one of them in the first round. Keep in mind that Maccabbi San Diego will have home-court advantage, so in the event that we do play them, understand that there is a main goal."


Nobody responded.


"Beat them on their own turf!"


The team agreed.


"That's all I have to say. Ben, do you have anything to add?"
"Yes. I've decided to give you guys next week off. No practice until the following Sunday."
"What?"
"Hit the showers and have a great day!"


He blew his whistle and the players dispersed. It was just Ben and I standing on the court now.


"What the hell was that?"
"Mac, I'm the head coach of this organization. I understand you're upset about the whole Melinda thing right now, which is why I allowed you to take over the past couple of weeks. But our players have lives, you know."
"They should've thought about that before they joined the team."


Ben gave me a weird look.


"Okay, so maybe I've been taking it a little seriously. But it's been effective. The team is looking sharper than ever."
"They look tired to me, Mac. You said it yourself; they're slow on defense especially."
"It could've been an off-day."
"Mac!"
"What?"


Ben didn't look too happy. He actually looked quite iritated.


"Let's talk. It's been three weeks since you and Melinda broke up."


I nodded my head silently.


"It's been really tense at school."


I nodded again.


"Do you wanna stop nodding and say something?"


I nodded, this time to be funny.


"Seriously, Mac."
"What do you want me to say, Ben? Do you want me to say that I'm doing fine right now? Do you want me to say that I don't miss Melinda? Do you want me to say that I haven't had her on my mind every waking moment since we broke up? What do you want to hear, Ben?"


Ben suddenly had a smile on his face.


"That's what I wanted to hear. I wanted to be sure that you were feeling something."
"Of course I'm feeling something, Ben. I loved her--correction: I love her."
"And you broke up with her because--"
"Because it was the right thing to do. It was gonna happen eventually."
"But you're still sad about it."
"No, Ben, I'm actually really happy about it!"
"Okay, calm down. While I appreciate the sarcasm, it won't make you feel better."


Just then, Ben's girlfriend Sam walked onto the court, dressed back in her street clothes.


"Hey, Coaches. Great practice."


She had the smile on her face that she always did. Ben was a lucky guy.


"Thanks, baby."

They began to make out. They had been together for a little over a month, so they were a relatively new relationship. Genereally, I'd be happy for my best friend...but in my current state, seeing couples together just annoyed the crap out of me.


"Ahem."


The two abruptly stopped.


"Sorry."
"That's quite alright."
"Yeah, I forgot that we're not supposed to show PDA in front of you. It just turns me on so much when Ben is in coaching mode."


Ben began to tickle her playfully. Once again, I was getting annoyed.


"Listen, I'm sure you two lovebirds would like to be left alone right now."
"You sure you don't wanna join us over at By the Slice?"
"Nah, I'm good."
"Alright. I'll just see ya tomorrow."

I walked away and left the love-birds alone to discuss whatever it was that they were gonna talk about.


"Is he still doing pretty bad?"
"Yeah. And the worst part is that he won't talk. He's handling this by throwing himself into his coaching."
"I noticed. We've been having three practices a week. People have lives!"
"That's what I told him! Wow, you and me are perfect for each other!"
"I know. Let's make out!"
"Okay!"


The next day at school was long. All the days had been long lately. Definitely the perfect mixture of senioritis and a broken heart. However, things were about to get even more awkward.


"We need to talk, Michael."
"You sure? Things didn't go over so well the last time you said that to me."
"Whatever. Forget it."


She started to walk away but I followed her.


"Okay, that was rude of me. I was just trying to be funny."
"Well, it wasn't."
"What's on your mind?"
"This is really hard for me to say. It's hard just talking to you."
"It's not easy for me either, Melinda. Just tell me what you need to tell me."


She took a deep breath before speaking.

"It's been three weeks. I still have a lot of stuff that you left at my house."


I nodded, not really knowing what to say.


"I spent last weekend organizing it and getting the stuff put in boxes. Clothes, a toothbrush, a razor, stuff like that."


I nodded again and then spoke.


"I have some stuff of your's as well. I haven't looked through any of it, but I'm sure it's all in my room."


Aside from the sounds of our classmates running through the halls, it was dead silent.


"If you could organize the stuff for me and bring it by my house this weekend, that would be great."


I nodded for the millionth time.


"I can come by on Saturday night."


As if on cue, the bell rang.


"Saturday night sounds good. I guess I'll see you then."
"I guess so."


We proceeded to walk away from each other awkwardly. Every few steps I would look back and watch her walk. Our entire relationship flashed before my eyes as I watched her walk in the opposite direction of me; all 17 years of our relationship.


Sincerely,
Mac-Attack