My Cure - Mallory Pugh/USWNT (Sequel to Attached)

Chapter 10

Mal's POV: 

"I saw this one from a mile away!" Chloe laughed after we told her. 

"A whole mile?" Morgana asked. 

"Oh for sure. You two became so close so fast, and the looks, and how Morgana is so insanely happy when you're around....it made sense." 

"Wow." I said. 

"Chloe, do you think mom and dad know?" Morgana asked. 

"They're completely oblivious. They do know that you make Morgana so happy." She said. 

I thought back to the day that I watched Morgana make a fool of Ashley Sanchez playing basketball out front of her house. The sound of them laughing replayed in my head, and then I remembered Morgana's mom coming outside with lemonade, and then going on this whole rant about how she's never seen Morgana this happy and how she always talked about me and stuff. 

At that point in time, I didn't really think it was me, I thought it was more the fact that she had just gotten called to the senior national team, her longtime dream, and because I was her roommate and we were together 24/7. 

Now that Chloe said it, I guess I could understand why it wouldn't be hard to suspect it, and for whatever reason that made me nervous. 

I took out my phone quickly, and started researching. Because I know how much people love to speculate, and I want to know how many people speculate correctly. 

I looked up a few things, (Mallory Pugh dating, who is Morgana LaRue dating, who is Mallory Pugh dating, Morgana LaRue dating rumors) and I got all the information I needed. 

"Shit." I said under my breath as the other two talked. 

"What's wrong?" Morgana asked. 

"So Chloe isn't the only one who thought we were together. Look." I showed her my phone, with a whole article about it. 

"Oh." She said. 

"LaPugh? Are you kidding me? We even have a stupid name." I said. 

"I think it's kind of funny." 

"Morgana." 

She took my phone from me, clicked on a few things, then laughed. 

"AHA! Malgana LaPugh!" 

"That is not funny." 

"It kind of is. Let's lok up the hashtags on instagram and stuff." 

"Why are we doing this?" 

"For shits and giggles." She said. 

"Oh fine." I took my phone back, went off my main verified instagram account, and scrolled through the hashtag. 

"This person said 'Mallory Pugh and Morgana LaRue or Ashley Sanchez and Morgana LaRue?' and everybody in the comments say us, and how there's no way we aren't a 'thing.' This is actually so weird." I said, laughing a bit. 

"Look at this. The battle between you and I and Ash and I is a whole thing. Lots of twitter debates here." She showed me her phone. "I;m going to like one on my main just for laughs." 

"Morgana don't-" 

Too late. She liked it, and kept scrolling. 

"I can see it now. 'Today's Latest Soccer News: Malgana LaPugh confirmed?" I sighed. 

"Everything's gonna be fine. I swear." 

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Morgana's POV

By the time we were back home in Chicago, every sports headline had to do with me. 

Some about my sister's trial, some about how people think I'm going to do in the next friendlies, but lots and lots about the tweet I liked. 

And I liked another, but that was completely by accident. 

I heard about this from Ashley and Sophia first. When I turned my phone off airplane mode after I got off the plane, I saw I had a million messages from them to Mal and I. 

'Morgana. What. Are. You. Doing?' Ashley had texted me after she sent an article. 

"Well this sure hit the news fast." I said to Mal. 

"I didn't even think people cared THIS much about us soccer players." Mal said. 

"Oh Mal. If it comes to dating rumors, everyone cares." 

"That's true. And you also made a whole storm in the media recently with your performance at the ShBelieves Cup and how well you're doing in the NWSL right now." She said as we walked to baggage claim. 

"I guess. But you've had great games too." 

"You're extremely popular right now." 

"True." 

I had no idea what else to say, so I didn't say anything as we walked through the airport. She didn't say anything either. 

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June 18th, 2022

Today we're playing Kansas City Current. 

We are currently in first, and I'm in the lead for the Golden Boot race, only 2 goals ahead of Alex Morgan, and 3 ahead of Trinity Rodman, Mal, and Hatch. 

I'm tied for 3rd with Trinity Rodman in assists as well, and we're behind Mal in 2nd place and Ashley Sanchez in 1st. 

So my friends and I own the NWSL right now. 

This is our last game before we all go on international break, and I'm excited to be with the national team again. And I finally get to play woth Trinity Rodman, which excites me even more. 

Mal and I are both stating as per usual, and we did our pregame rituals. We're undefeated, and not one of those times have we skipped the rituals. 

What we do is before warmups in the locker room, we sing Our Song by Taylor Swift. No one's joined, because they understand how superstitions work, but they all do enjoy it. There's always a video taken by Tatumn Milazzo because she took a video the first time and it's part of the tradition. 

We also do our handshake as we walk out of the tunnel, and we always walk out last. 

The last tradition we do is when we go back into the locker room before they annpunce the starting XI and we walk out for the anthem and the picture, we braid eachother's hair. So we warm up with ponytails, and when we go back out we have braids in. Everyone thinks our little things are so cute, but we see them as part of the game. 

This game was my chance to scare the Colombia national team before they have to play us. It's also going to be a tough game, after everything with my sister again. But I have to show myself I can play through things like this, because I know I'm strong enough to.