Attached - Mallory Pugh/USWNT

Chapter 35

April 16th, 2022 - 8:00 pm

Mal's POV

I looked up from my phone as Morgana pulled us into a tattoo parlor. 

"Why are we here?" I asked. 

"Because I want a puppy." She said sarcastically. 

"Alright, alright. Are you getting another tattoo?" 

"After everything these past few weeks, I think so." 

"Do you have any idea what you're getting?" 

"Yep." She replied, taking the wrap off her sprained wrist. 

"Don't get anything dumb." I said, following her out of the car. 

"I'm not." 

She went to the desk after telling me to sit down. They immediately took her back, and I looked at the other few people waiting in the room. She motioned for me to stay, so I did. 

"Mallory?" I heard a voice from my left. 

"Jamie?" I asked, standing up and giving her a hug. "How are you?" 

"I'm good! It's been a while since you called." She said. 

I looked at my high school best friend, the only one who knew everything about me during my high school years, and the only one who knew about my crush on Morgana. 

"I'm sorry about that. Life has been crazy. After I dropped out of college, the Red Stars wanted me to start right away. I haven't had much time to process anything since like February either." I said. "But I do owe you a call." 

"It's fine! SO I see you connected with her finally. She dragged you into a random tattoo parlor." 

"I have no idea what she's doing to be honest." 

"I watched every game of the SheBelieves Cup. I'm really proud of you." She said. "And when I saw that she was there and how close you seemed on the field and stuff, it made me really happy." 

"Yeah. A lot happened at camp. So much." I laughed. "So what are you doing here?" 

"My boyfriend's in the back right now. I have no idea what he's getting but I have a good feeling it's going to be something he regrets." 

"I'm afraid of what Morg's getting too. She was being secretive. SO how long are you in town for?" 

"I'm leaving tomorrow. It feels so great to be home. Only 2 of my classes are still going, so I guess I have to go back. It's like 3 more weeks of school." She sighed. "But I'll fly out to Chicago for sure to see one of your games. We can hang out then." 

"Yeah, of course." I said. 

We chatted for a while longer, and then her boyfriend came walking out. 

"Ready to go, babe?" He said, then paused. "So this is the famous Mallory Pugh?" 

"Yes it is." Jamie smiled. "Our high school adventures are unmatched."

"I've heard a lot about you. I'm Tom." He said, sticking out his hand. 

"Hi Tom. Clearly you know me." I shook his hand. 

"I am also a very big fan." 

That drew some eyes our way from around the waiting room, and I think people finally realized that I was here.  

"Thanks." I said. "You should come to Chicago with Jamie this summer to come see a game. I can get free tickets." 

"Awesome!" 

"What'd you get?" Jamie asked him. 

He rolled up his long sleeve to reveal a quote and a few different pictures, almost making an entire sleeve. 

"Wow." She said. 

"I like it." I said. 

"Me too." 

A few seconds later, Morgana walked out of the back. 

"Jamie Martin?" She said, looking at Jamie. 

"Morgana LaRue!" They hugged. 

"How are you?" 

"I'm doing well, you?" 

"I'm great." 

"Hi Morg." I said. 

"Hi Mal." 

"Can I see?" 

"Yeah." She pulled back the right sleeve of her hoodie, twisted her hand palm up, there was a gold heart on her wrist. Then she flipped her hand around, and below the knuckles of her pointer and middle finger, there was a 2 on both, so when she put them together it was a 22. 

"I like it." I said. 

"Nothing too big or flashy. Just something subtle and meaningful." She smiled. 

----------

I drove us back to Morgana's for obvious reasons. 

"Was it really smart go get a tattoo on my sprained wrist? Probably not, because I can't wrap it for a few hours or something. Also when I wrap it again, no one can see it! But you can see the 22. I love that number." She said. "I need some music." 

She turned on the country station, because we both liked it. The song playing was Run by Morgan Wade. 

I heard her softly humming along, and the lyrics hit me like a hurricane. 

"What if we run? What if we get away? There ain't a single reason for us to stay." 

I got the chills, and looked over at Morgana. 

"Can we fly, somewhere foreign? Get me high, mess me up until the morning. Because all I see in every street is where he made me numb, there's gotta be somewhere, somewhere we can run. We can run." 

I took a deep breath. I turned down the music. "Morgana, there's gotta be somewhere we can run." 

"Huh?" 

"I need to get away from reality. Just for a few days. There's gotta be somewhere we can run. Will you run away with me?" I asked. 

"Yes." She said, no hesitation. "Yes I will Mal." 

When we pulled up to her house, we went to her room to pack up. 

"Where can we run?" She asked me. 

"I don't know." I said. 

She threw a bunch of clothes in her suitcase, about half of them being mine. 

"Well where were you thinking?" 

"Uh." 

"Hurry up." 

"A beach...in Florida." I said, grabbing my stuff. 

"Great. We're flying into Orlando." She said, looking at her phone. 

"How soon?" 

"If we leave for the airport in the next 15 minutes we will make it to the airport probably just in time." 

"Sounds great." 

"I'll get my mom to drive us." 

"Won't she ask why?" 

"Meeting some friends. I don't care. Let's just go." 

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'm coming home from vacation tomorrow so I will update stuff more often then. But anyway go check out my Ashley story if you havem't already, because I posted the first 3 chapters!

Also there's 5 more chapters of this book, and I'm already working on a sequel to this about Mal and Morgana which is about halfway finished. And then I also started a spinoff of this as well but that will come later.