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

Chapter 24

June 28th, 2022

Morgana's POV

When the game was over, I went back to the locker room right away to say something, anything, to Mal. 

Lindsey followed me, and most of the rest of the team was outside doing autographs and selfies with fans. 

I walked into the locker room, and I saw Mal sitting inside her locker with her head leaning on the edge. 

"Mal what the hell were you thinking?" I asked her. "You know how bad that looks?" 

"I'm sorry. I just couldn't bear to see you get beat up again." She said sadly. 

"Mal, you don't have to stand up for me. I can handle myself. You're too precious and sweet to get a bad rep like that. I hope you didn't hurt that other girls too badly." 

"Morgana, I-" 

"Mallory, don't even start. You know you shouldn't have done that." 

"I know. I'm sorry." 

"It's so out of character for you. I've never seen you get like that ever. What happened?" 

She bit her lip to hold back tears. 

"I don't really know. I think it's just...you've already got so much to deal with, I didn't want it to get ugly for you, that's all." She said. "And I love you more than anyone in the whole world. You're my whole world. I can't see you get hurt again." 

Now it was my turn to hold back tears, and that's when I really saw how bad her eye looked. Her lip had stopped bleeding, but was still puffy. 

I walked out to the field to grab some ice, and walked it back into the locker room. I sat down next to her, putting the ice on her eye and my other arm around her shoulder. She rested her head on my shoulder, and we just sat there for a little while. 

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We went back to the hotel on the bus, and even though it was a good win, no one really talked. I sat next to Ashley, because I needed some good vibes right now. 

We threw everything in our bags quickly, and then the bus took us to the airport so we could fly to Mexico. 

They assigned seats on the plane (ew) so I wasn't put next to Mal or Ashley, which made me mad. But I convinced Rose to let me have the window seat. It didn't take much though. I was next to Aubrey Kingsbury and Rose obviously on the other side of her. It was alphabetical. 

I fell asleep after about 10 minutes, and I slept the whole flight. When we got off the plane, everyone was laughing at their phones. 

"What the heck did I miss?"I asked Ashley. 

"A lot. Look."

She showed me her phone, which had a picture of me sleeping texted to everyone on the team, including me. 

Then after it was a picture of Mal hanging over my seat, because she sat behind me. She gave a thumbs up and I'm shocked she didn't fall over right onto me. 

"Then 'Cool Aunt Kelley' yelled at her because she didn't want either of you to get hurt. Some cool aunt." Ashley said. 

I took out my phone, and it turns out almost everyone had taken the picture and edited something on it. Sophia put a mustache, Rose just took a bunch of pictures with snapchat filters, Alex took out the background and edited me sleeping on the sideline of a soccer game, etc. It was pretty funny actually. 

My nickname changed from 'the kid' and 'goldie' and 'blondie' to 'sleeping beauty' real fast after that. I don't understand why it was so funny to everyone. I'm just tired! 

But it's funny to me too, and I don't really care. 

As the bus took us to our hotel, almost everyone on the team had posted the edits on their instagram stories or twitter, which quickly went viral and became a trend by the next afternoon. 

I had all sorts of things edited onto me by the time I was done with practice. 

Ashley and Sophia had come up with the hashtag 'Sleeping LaBeauty'  which for whatever reason they thought was hilarious. 

"It's a play on your last name! Rue rhymes with the beginning of beauty, so instead of LaRue it's LaBeauty for Sleeping LaBeauty." Ashley said through her laughs. 

"It's very clever, Ash." I said, as we got on the bus to take us to our hotel. 

"It's SO FUNNY!" She sat down next to me, laughing harder than I've ever seen her laugh, and to that girl, everything was funny. 

I turned to the seat behind me, which is where Abby Dahlkemper and Alex Morgan were sitting. I mouthed 'help me' before turning back to tell her to calm down. 

"What's wrong?" Abby stuck her head over the seat. 

"She's got a case of the giggles." I replied. 

"What's so funny?" Alex poked her head over the seat as well.

Ash tried to say something, but she was laughing too hard. 

"It's not that funny! I mean, it's funny, but it's not this funny!" I said. 

"What is it?" Asked Abby. 

"Sleeping LaBeauty." I said. 

Both of them started laughing too. 

"I can't be the only one who doesn't find this THAT funny. It's funny, but not like death by laughter funny." 

Trinity was taking a video of Ashley laughing, and she got me saying that on video. 

"Trinity. Is it really this funny?" I asked. 

"All I know is that Ashley's gonna pee her pants." She laughed. 

"Well everyone here thinks it's funny. Who should I ask now?" I asked. 

"The bus driver." 

"The bus--are you serious? Because I will. I will ask the bus driver."  

"Go then." 

"Okay." I stepped over Ashley and walked my ass to the front of the bus, where all the staff was and everything. 

I said a bunch of 'excuse me' and 'oops sorry' as I made my way to the front, stepping over bags and feet.

"Excuse me? Bus driver?" I said. I looked and realized I was holding up the line for Mal and Hatch and a few other people, but I didn't care. 

"What's up?"

"Do you think the term 'Sleeping LaBeauty' is funny?" 

"That's a reference to the picture of you sleeping from yesterday? A play on your last name?" He asked. 

"Yeah." 

"I did laugh a lot last night." 

"So it's really really funny?" 

"It's pretty funny." 

"Thanks sir. I'll give you 5 stars on busdrivers.com if that's a thing." I said. 

"You're welcome." He said, and I walked away. 

Trinity had followed me with the camera, and she was trying so hard not to laugh. 

"Whatever guys." I said, and she burst out laughing.