Rebound: A 2nd Chance

Alex, Danilo, Rudy, 3D, and Kyle both froze up as they heard Jasmine announce that. Out of nowhere Rudy throws his sandwich on the floor.

He then moved to the side and started throwing up. Alex looked at him with a confused expression on his face "You okay man?"

Rudy raised his head up and looked at Alex. He saw him take another bite out of his sandwich and immediately ran over to him.

He slapped the sandwich out of his hands. Alex looked at him as though he were looking at a crazy person.

"What the hell are you doi-" He couldn't finish his words as Rudy grabbed him and made him hunch over.

Rudy was grabbing Alex's face and shouting "Throw it up! Spit out everything! Hurry before it's too late!"

Danilo rushed over and tried to pull Rudy off of his brother "What the fuck are you doing Rudy!? Get your hands off of him!" 

Rudy stubbornly fought to keep Alex in his hold "I should be saying that to you! I'm trying to help your brother out!

He needs to yak right now! He has to spit that shit out! And no one else take another bite! We all have to purge our systems! We've fallen for their trap!"

Kyle walked over and joined Danilo in trying to pry Rudy off of Alex. After a couple seconds of struggling they finally managed to separate the two.

Kyle looked at Rudy questioningly "What was all of that about?" Rudy took a second to dust himself off and to straighten up his clothes that had gotten messed up in the previous struggle.

"You guys still haven't figured it out? Jesus, just take a second to think about it. The first day of practice we coincidently bump into the sister of someone that just so happens to be from Central Park?

I bet he sent his sister over to sabotage us. These sandwiches were probably drugged or something!"

Jasmine and the rest of the guys all looked at Rudy like he was a crazy person. Before he could say anything else Jason walked over to him and grabbed him by the ear.

"You ruined my wonderful experience with a Chopped Cheese just to talk crazy?" Rudy tried to turn his head to look at Jason "What the fu-"

But Jason pulled his ear up even harder "I know you like to get lost in your anime fantasies and whatever but this is too much Rudy.

You threw a whole ass sandwich on the floor bro. You wasted some perfectly good food. And you didn't even pay for it. You just wasted good food and Habib's work."

Jason pulled out one of his extra sandwiches from his paper bag and handed it to Alex "Here. You need to eat before we head back out to the training facility."

Alex was somewhat surprised "Huh? Oh, thanks." Jason just nodded his head before proceeding to pick up and clean the mess that Rudy had made by throwing the sandwiches on the floor.

After throwing all the trash into a nearby trash bin Jason looked at Rudy "I don't want to be a party pooper or a vibe killer.

But some shit is just too much bro. Just because Jasmine has a brother that plays for Central Park you all of a sudden think that this is all a trap?"

Rudy couldn't think of anything to say as he silently stared at the floor. Seeing Rudy's reaction Jason sighed. He then pointed at Jasmine.

"That's messed up bro. She just wanted to take us to her favorite local spot and share some good food. You owe her an apology."

Normally whenever anyone tried to tell him that he was in the wrong or try to correct him Rudy would feel attacked or be too embarrassed to admit that he had made a mistake.

But for some reason when Jason was the one to do it all he felt was guilty and bad. Rudy hesitantly raised his head and looked at Jasmine.

"Sorry." Jasmine awkwardly chuckled "Hehe it's cool.... I guess I should have told y'all that my lil bro played for Central Park after finding out that y'all hooped too."

After apologizing Rudy couldn't help but keep his eyes locked on to the floor 'Fuck. They'll probably rub this shit all in my face. They'll clown me nonstop and talk some mad shit.'

But instead of the harsh words that he was expecting all that came was a friendly pat on his shoulder.

He turned his head and saw Jason patting his shoulder. Jason and Rudy made eye contact. Jason simply raised his hand up and gave Rudy a thumbs up.

"Nice. As long as you can recognize when you fuck up and own up to it then there's still hope for you."

Rudy was stunned for a moment. It took him a second to fully process what Jason had said. He nodded his head "Thanks."

Jason gave a satisfied nod before reaching back into his paper bag. He pulled out the last sandwich that was in there and offered it to Rudy.

"Here. You only took a single bite out of your Chopped Cheese before you threw it on the floor. You're gonna need the fuel. We still have a whole day of training ahead."

Rudy reached out to accept the sandwich but his hand froze as it reached the halfway point 'I can't take this. It's my own fault that I acted stupid.'

"Actually I-" Before he could decline Jason's offer Jason put the sandwich in Rudy's hand "Hurry up and start eating. We don't have that much time. We need to start walking back in five minutes."

Jason then turned around and walked over to Kyle's side. Rudy looked at the sandwich in his hand. After a moment of hesitation he unwrapped it.

He took a bite. And although the flavor of the sandwich was just as amazing as it had been when he had taken his first bite Rudy felt like this was the worst thing that he had ever eaten as he struggled to push the food down his throat.

Jason had nothing left to eat so he just cracked open his bottle of sweet iced tea. For the next few minutes everyone ate in silence.