I'm Truly Sorry
By Genevieve Leanne Dominguez
When Stephanie woke up from a strange dream, the first thing she did was check the date.
“Ahh, that explains it,” she murmured to herself. 11 years ago, her high school had its prom, although she had never gone. She wished she would've, but no one had asked her. She wondered if Tristan and Alan went to prom. She would never know because she had been at a different school than Tristan her senior year and Alan had graduated the year before.
Tristan and Alan – the two guys who had been a very important part of her life back then – had come back to her in a dream. Not in a romantic way. She wasn’t arrogant to think they had thought about her since high school. They had simply appeared in her dream.
It was a sunny day and Tristan and Alan were sitting at a picnic table, laughing and reminiscing about their football days in high school. When Stephanie saw them, she called out their names and waved. They smiled and invited her to join them because they had each reached out to her through social media, asking her to meet them for closure. She was so happy because she was also ready for closure.
When she sat down, they apologized for the way things ended in high school and she did the same. She also told them that if she could turn back time and go back to high school and be the person she is now, then everything would’ve ended well. Afterwards, they continued talking and laughing because they all knew they would remain friends. High school was truly over, and they were at peace.
Stephanie wished it was real. In truth, Tristan and Alan didn’t know each other. They went to separate high schools – she and Tristan at the same school and Alan at another. She had met Alan the summer before her sophomore year because they had enrolled in the same summer tutoring program. He was a year older, so it had been the summer before his junior year.
She had dated both. In her opinion, she had made it worse by going back and forth between the two, although she had met Tristan first and had more history with him.
As she got dressed for work, she tried to not think about it, but the dream – and her wish for it to be real – was there. So she decided to do what Tristan and Alan did in her dream. She reminisced.
As she made a cup of coffee, she remembered how she was part of the drill team. When Tristan and Alan’s schools played against each other, she wouldn’t cheer for neither one. She couldn’t.
When she was with Tristan, they would meet up after school and he would give her a ride home. When they went out on a date, they would go to the bookstore, the mall, or out to eat before seeing a movie. With Alan, it was something similar.
Then anger seeped in when she saw them dating other girls. When they came back to her, she said yes because she wanted them, but she couldn’t let go of what she had seen.
Next came the arguments, immaturity, and insecurity. She had thought the small white lies she told were nothing.
Pride came after. Now they were waiting on her to decide rather than her waiting on them. What girl could take them from her? They had always come back. Surely, they always would.
She should’ve known by the books she read that love triangles never ended well.
When Alan graduated high school, he left. Tristan did the same a year later. At first, she refused to believe what she had was a broken heart. But as the days turned into years, she began to change.
It was a slow change, but it was there. She began to understand everything she had done wrong. The guilt was painful, sometimes even more so than the heartbreak. But she continued to admit the wrongs she had done. That’s when she realized the lies said by other people – the ones she had heard of but could never prove – had kept both Tristan and Alan away.
Stephanie didn’t blame them. She had hoped they knew her well enough to know what was true and what wasn't. But she could understand how it may have been hard because of the kind of person she had been.
As she took the first sip of her coffee, she looked out the window and noticed it was going to be a sunny day. It made her smile.
I wish Tristan and Alan the best. I hope they are happy in every way, she thought.
She took another sip and realized that this could already be true for them. It made her smile again. She wished for a happy ending for her as well.
She also hoped Tristan and Alan had forgiven her for everything she had done. If she had caused them any pain, she was truly sorry. And if she ever saw them in real life, she would be brave enough to apologize.
Stephanie closed her eyes and thought of the dream again. Just one more time before she let go and continued with her day.
Copyright © Genevieve Leanne Dominguez
All rights reserved.
I'm Truly Sorry - Originally published on April 6, 2026 on this website - https://genevieveleanne.wixsite.com/mysite
This is a work of fiction. The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this book are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and/or products is intended or should be inferred.
No part of this story may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permission requests, please contact Genevieve Leanne Dominguez at author.genevieveleanned@gmail.com
Editor: Genevieve Leanne Dominguez