The Apology That Took Too Long

Jourdan had been apologizing for eleven days. Not to the same person. That was somehow the more alarming part.

After a careless joke lands wrong and hurts a friend, fifteen-year-old Jourdan does what he is not supposed to do: he apologizes to everyone except the person he actually hurt. McKenna. Alexander. Renata. Dad. A chemistry teacher. The cafeteria monitor. And, on day eight, the school librarian, for contributing to the general emotional weather.

Alexander builds an apology tracker with four categories. McKenna watches and waits. And slowly, she realizes the problem is not that Jourdan refuses to apologize. The problem is that he is terrified the joke revealed something true about who he is.

Funny, honest, and quietly moving, The Apology That Took Too Long is a story about the difference between feeling guilty and making something right, and why a real apology has to reach the person who was actually hurt.

Sorry is not a shortcut out of guilt. It is a bridge back to the person you hurt.

Publisher: McKenna Books