55 pages • 1 hour read
Meagan BrandySay You Swear (Boys of Avix, #1)
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 11-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
A few weeks later, Arianna and her friends start college at Avix. She and Cameron are living together. One night, Cameron nags Arianna to hang out with their group. Arianna has been avoiding her friends since the incident with Chase at the beach house and making excuses to get out of their meetups. Annoyed with Arianna, Cameron confronts her about being upset over nothing. Arianna gets upset and admits that Chase hurt her and that she’s been trying to hide her feelings. Cameron is worried about Arianna’s well-being and encourages her to try getting out of the dorm. Finally, Arianna agrees to attend the boys’ first college football game with Cameron.
The boys win the game, and Arianna and Cameron congratulate them afterward. Arianna tries acting normal around Chase. However, she feels uncomfortable and declines their invitation to go out and celebrate. Lying in bed afterward, she promises herself that she’ll let the Chase situation go and start spending more time with her friends.
Chapter 12 Summary
The following weekend, Arianna and Cameron go to the student bar just off campus. Arianna gets caught up in the music and feels better when she starts dancing. Someone approaches her from behind, and they dance closely. The song ends, and Arianna is shocked to turn around and see that she was dancing with Noah.
Chapter 13 Summary
Arianna, Cameron, Noah, and Trey drink and chat. Noah and Trey are older and tell Arianna and Cameron about their first years at Avix. Throughout the conversation, Arianna references numerous songs. Cameron insists that she’s a human jukebox and has a song for every situation. When Trey and Cameron leave, Arianna and Noah stay in the booth and keep talking. Arianna hears herself telling Noah everything about her feelings for Chase and what happened between them at the beach house. Noah listens intently, insisting that the situation has everything to do with Chase’s uncertainties. He also notes that she hasn’t been hanging out at the football house with everyone because she’s been avoiding Chase. After the bar, Noah walks Arianna back to her dorm. She realizes that she didn’t want to say goodbye to him after he leaves.
Chapter 14 Summary
Noah shows up at Arianna’s door with coffee and breakfast the next morning. They spend the morning nursing their hangovers and talking. Arianna feels like she’s made a new friend. She doesn’t understand everything about Noah but notices how comfortable she feels with him. When he leaves, they exchange numbers and start texting.
Arianna’s friend group finds her alone in her dorm. Cameron teases her when she finds the napkin with Noah’s number on it. Arianna feels awkward being around her friends but distracts herself by texting Noah.
Chapter 15 Summary
Arianna and Noah continue texting over the following days. Arianna tells herself that they’re just chatting like new friends. Then, one day, Noah asks her to have dinner with him. She and Brady are in the library when Noah comes to pick her up. Arianna’s other friends appear and realize what’s happening. Arianna is surprised when Mason doesn’t threaten Noah but greets him in a friendly way.
Noah invites Arianna to his house and cooks her dinner. His mom taught him how to cook, and they made dinner together every night. Noah explains that his mom is his only family, as he doesn’t know his dad or have siblings. Arianna tells Noah about her family and explains how important her friends are to her. This is why she feels upset that their group has fallen apart in their first weeks at Avix because of her and Chase. She goes on to explain how and why they all ended up at the same university but withholds her reasons for wanting to go there.
Shortly after dinner, Arianna’s friends appear at the house. Arianna tries to ignore Chase’s scoffing. Then, Noah tells Mason that he’ll bring Arianna home. In her dorm alone, Arianna thinks about Chase and her friends and cries.
Chapter 16 Summary
Arianna and Cameron watch the boys practice in the stadium. Cameron remarks on how attractive Noah is, but Arianna pretends she hasn’t noticed. However, she feels annoyed when she sees him talking to an attractive blonde girl afterward. Noah and the girl approach, and he introduces her as his friend Paige.
On Sunday, the boys invite Arianna and Cameron to their house for dinner. Mason takes Arianna aside and confronts her about how she’s doing. Arianna secretly wishes that he hadn’t come between her and Chase but also knows that she can’t blame Mason. Then, Noah chats with Arianna, too. After observing them together, Cameron insists that Noah must be interested in Arianna.
Chapter 17 Summary
Arianna and Noah hang out and cook dinner together again. Arianna feels increasingly emotional throughout the evening, unsure why she’s so drawn to Noah. After dinner, they watch a movie and cuddle on the couch. Settling in near Noah, Arianna realizes that he “reminds [her] of home” (171).
Chapter 18 Summary
Noah gives Arianna a ride. At the door, she finds herself touching his hair but jerks back when their friends show up. They all want to go to FunWorks to ride the bumper boats before the season ends. Arianna invites Noah to join them. The friends enjoy their time at the park, eventually getting kicked out for their rowdiness. Driving home afterward, Arianna feels settled in a way that she doesn’t fully understand.
Chapter 19 Summary
Arianna and her friends decide that they want to stay in and watch a movie instead of going out partying. On the way to the boys’ house, Arianna remembers the last time she was in Chase’s truck. They almost kissed, but Mason interrupted them. She wonders if they’d be together now if they’d kissed that day. Another party is happening at the boys’ house, so Noah invites them to hang out in his space. Arianna is reluctant to share Noah’s space with her friends even though she loves them.
Sometime later, Arianna wakes up to Noah calling her name. Everyone else fell asleep during the movie. With his face close to hers, Noah asks Arianna if she’s still waiting for Chase. She touches his hair and tells him she’s not. Afterward, Cameron demands to know what’s happening between her and Noah. Arianna can’t explain it and wonders what Noah feels for her. She’s afraid that he’ll treat her like Chase.
Chapter 20 Summary
Arianna invites Noah to make dinner with her at her dorm. They cook and chat. Noah opens up more about his life, revealing that he just wants to make his mom proud and went to Avix to be close to her. She’s done everything for him, and he doesn’t want to let her down. Arianna feels tension building between them and asks Noah if he wants to kiss her. He admits that he does but wants to wait until she’s sure about her feelings. He then promises that from then on, he’ll never deny her what she wants again. They spend the rest of the night together, talking until 3:00 am.
Chapters 11-20 Analysis
Starting college at Avix University introduces Arianna and her friends to a new series of emotional and interpersonal conflicts. The formal movement from Chapters 10 to 11 introduces a temporal shift, which reorients the narrative a few weeks after Arianna and her friend group spent their summer at the beach house. This passage of time reveals how Arianna has been impacted by what happened between her and Chase on the beach. Although weeks have elapsed, Arianna is still in a “cyclical state of drowning in [her] sorrows” (101). She is not only trying to adjust to her new life away from home but is also still healing from the heartbreak she suffered after Chase rejected her. As a result of this conflict, Arianna has, in turn, lost her friends. For as long as she can remember, Mason, Brady, Chase, and Cameron have been like siblings and family to her. However, because of how upset she is over Chase, she has effectively cut her friends out of her life. Therefore, Arianna’s life looks remarkably different at the start of college than she had previously expected. She has always believed in The Importance of Friendship and Family but struggles to maintain these relationships while she simultaneously tries to understand who she is, what she wants, and how she might heal from her disappointment. These complex interpersonal dynamics challenge Arianna’s character as she continues The Journey Toward Self-Discovery.
Arianna and Noah’s evolving relationship accelerates the narrative pacing and amplifies the narrative tension. Arianna has spent many years imagining the possibility of her and Chase getting together. Chase’s rejection has shaken her hope, and so she does not imagine a new relationship developing between her and Noah. His character disrupts her previously fixed notions about the future and love and intimacy. Noah also introduces her to new ideas about friendship. Indeed, his character is sensitive, humble, kind, and caring. Arianna is undeniably attracted to him in a physical sense, but the time that they spend together makes her realize that she is also attracted to Noah’s personality and who he is as a person. The repeated scenes in which Arianna and Noah cook dinner particularly illustrate the significance of their connection. The novel uses these cooking scenes as symbolic representations of intimacy. In cooking together, Arianna and Noah are coming together in the same space and making something new. They must communicate as they work, tasting the food and toying with the recipes. These actions symbolize the melding of the two characters’ personalities and how they are gradually getting to know one another and thus merging their two lives and hearts—contributing to the theme of The Healing Power of Love.
However, the characters’ budding romance faces obstacles because Noah knows about Arianna’s feelings for Chase. This is particularly apparent in the scene where Arianna asks Noah if he wants to kiss her while they’re making dinner at her dorm. Noah wants to be with Arianna and has been demonstrative about his feelings for her: bringing her coffee and breakfast, giving her rides, and inquiring about her well-being. However, he is also hesitant to pursue a physical relationship with her if she is still heartbroken over Chase. Indeed, Arianna reveals in the body of her narration that she will “always love Chase” and that “the thought of him still hurts, even if it’s nothing like it was before” (199). Noah’s ability to intuit these facets of Arianna’s emotional state sets him apart from a character like Chase. Whereas Chase took advantage of Arianna’s vulnerability at the beach house, Noah has no interest in doing so. At the same time, Noah’s hesitance to advance their relationship heightens Arianna's insecurities, complicates her already complex feelings surrounding both Chase and Noah, and, in turn, challenges her self-esteem. The novel uses these dynamics to both mobilize the narrative and further the themes concerning love, friendship, and self-discovery.
