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.
Chapter 44-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 44 Summary
Noah stays at the beach with Arianna and her friends for the rest of the winter break. One day, he returns from a visit with Nate to find Arianna cooking a recipe he taught her. Afterward, he tosses the football with Mason. Then, Payton shows up with her new baby, Deaton. Arianna avoids them because of her miscarriage.
That afternoon, Noah is hurt when Arianna tells him that she’s going to the gala with Chase. Noah confronts Chase afterward, insisting that Arianna is his and that they are happy together. Chase argues that he’s just trying to be supportive of Arianna. Shaking with frustration, Noah wonders if he should just give up.
Chapter 45 Summary
Arianna’s mom drives her to her doctor’s appointment. On the way, they talk about what Arianna is going through. Arianna can’t imagine that her life has changed that much in a semester, but her mom suggests that maybe she’s the one who’s changed. At the doctor’s, Arianna goes inside alone. She tells her doctor how hard everything has been for her. She feels like she’s living in a fog and is just pretending to be okay for her family.
Back home, Arianna avoids Chase and goes down to the beach to get some air. She finds Noah by the water, and they agree to hang out without talking.
Noah and Arianna take a walk, holding hands. Arianna opens up to him about her frustration with everything that’s happening. She starts crying as she tells him how lost she feels. Noah wants to comfort her but doesn’t want to go against her wishes and tell her about their relationship. However, he’s glad to be with her now.
Chapter 46 Summary
Arianna attends the football gala with Chase and her friends. However, while they’re dancing, something feels wrong. She thinks she has everything she’s ever wanted but still feels upset. She starts crying, and Mason swoops in to comfort her.
That night, Arianna lies in bed crying. She feels guilty and ashamed but doesn’t know why. She also cries “for the child [she] lost” (439). Cameron and Mason find her and comfort her. Arianna tells them how bad she feels, but Mason assures her that there’s a man hurting as much as her who also wants to be with her. Arianna doesn’t understand but feels better afterward.
Noah goes to see Lori. They have a pleasant visit and talk intimately. Then, Lori gives Noah a ring that he found on the beach and gave to her when he was a kid. Noah leaves the rehab center feeling hopeful.
Chapter 47 Summary
Chase drives Arianna back to campus when the semester starts again. She runs into Paige on campus and immediately remembers her. Paige informs her that Lori has died.
Arianna attends Lori’s funeral with her friends. Arianna feels flashes of memories during the service but can’t make sense of them. When Noah gives the eulogy, he keeps his eyes on Arianna the whole time.
Chapter 48 Summary
Arianna goes to the beach to feel better. Noah finds her there. They talk openly, and Arianna realizes that they know each other. Then, Noah offers to show Arianna his favorite place. He drives her to his high school football field and invites her to dance with him. Arianna feels close to him, but then Noah starts crying and pulls away. She feels heavier while watching him walk away.
Chapter 49 Summary
Arianna and Cameron return to their dorm. Arianna doesn’t remember the room but likes the space. She lies in bed and finds the smell of “spice and pine and mint” in her blankets (466). Surprised, she realizes that she smelled these things at the hospital, too. She starts exploring her room and finds that she wrote “Gala with Noah” on her calendar (467). She then finds a satin dress in her closet and realizes that she and Noah were supposed to go to the event together.
Arianna races out of the dorm to see Noah, surprised when she finds his room without help. She tells him what she figured out. Then, she realizes that her clothes are in his room. She moves in to kiss him and asks him to show her how he feels about her. They kiss and then spend the rest of the night talking.
Chapter 50 Summary
Arianna and Mason visit Payton and Deaton. Afterward, Mason asks Arianna what she’s going to do about Noah and Chase. She admits that she isn’t sure.
Back at the dorm, Arianna discovers that Noah’s name is all over her calendar. She also finds a note that tells her to pick something up at a local printing company.
Noah wakes up thinking about his evening with Arianna. He hopes that she remembers him but still worries that she wants to be with Chase. He wishes that he could let her go, but he sees her everywhere he goes.
Chapter 51 Summary
Arianna goes to the printing shop, where she collects a project that she was apparently working on. The clerk also tells her that a woman from the Tri-City Rehabilitation Center left her a message asking to see her. Arianna drives to the center and runs into Cathy inside. Cathy gives her a sealed envelope from Lori and offers her condolences. Arianna races home, jumps into bed, and tears open Lori’s letter. In the note, Lori tells Arianna how much she loved her and how happy she was that Arianna and Noah had each other. She explains that she and Noah are in love and that they’ve helped each other heal. Arianna suddenly remembers everything.
Chapter 52 Summary
Arianna goes to find Chase. She realizes that she needs to tell him how she feels.
Chapter 53 Summary
Arianna and Chase talk about everything that happened between them. Arianna insists that she cares about Chase but that she loves Noah. Chase admits that she deserves someone like Noah.
Arianna races to the football field, where she finds Noah. She tells him that she remembers everything, and they embrace. He hugs her, and she feels like she’s home.
Epilogue Summary
Arianna and Noah take the rest of the semester off. They move into Arianna’s parents’ house temporarily and spend all their time together. On Valentine's Day, they celebrate all the holidays and events they missed in the months prior. After they have sex, Arianna gives Noah her Christmas present: a recipe book that she and Lori were working on before Lori’s death. It includes a photo of them together at the rehab center, too. Noah is moved by the gift. He then takes out the ring that Lori gave him and asks Arianna to marry him. She says yes, and they promise to love each other forever.
Chapter 44-Epilogue Analysis
Arianna’s efforts to remember her recent past further the novel’s exploration of its key themes. Because Arianna wants to remember her recent experiences on her own, she refuses to allow her friends and family to tell her what happened to her during her first semester at Avix. This decision is inspired by Arianna’s desire to appear strong and capable. She tells her doctor that her “family has been amazing” but that she feels as if she’s been “tossed out in the middle of the ocean” and feels obligated to pretend that she is okay so that her loved ones don’t worry about her (427). Arianna’s amnesia has affected her emotional disorientation and has thus begun to complicate her self-realization journey. What Arianna learns in these final chapters of the novel is that it’s okay to ask for help when she feels alone and that her family and friends are, in fact, her greatest strength, cementing The Importance of Friendship and Family.
Meanwhile, as Arianna begins to rediscover her connection with Noah, she realizes that the love she and Noah share has not only healed them in the past but also can lead them through this difficult time. This solidifies The Healing Power of Love. Indeed, Arianna and Noah’s ability to survive Arianna’s accident and amnesia illustrates the power and profundity of their connection. The novel uses the longevity and sustainability of their relationship to suggest that love might overcome any difficulties and might transform the individual in the process. Throughout the novel, both Arianna and Noah have encountered countless obstacles and challenges. Arianna’s head injury and Noah’s mother’s death only add to these struggles and draw them further apart when they need each other most. Throughout these final chapters, Arianna and Noah aren’t often together. The narrative depicts them in repeated scenes where they are sitting alone with their anger, sorrow, and confusion. These scenes reiterate how much the characters need one another. When they are apart, they feel helpless and lost.
By way of contrast, when they’re together, their internal turmoil dissipates, and they feel safe and calm. For example, when they meet up on the beach in Chapter 48, Arianna realizes that, unlike her family, Noah doesn’t try “to pretend everything is normal” (458). Arianna doesn’t feel the need to smile and pretend she’s okay for Noah’s benefit. The same is true for Noah, who feels comfortable expressing his sorrow and frustrations when he’s with Arianna. Both characters have aided each other in The Journey Toward Self-Discovery. Arianna and Noah have fostered a love that grants them a consistent sense of home and belonging where they can be themselves without fear. For these reasons, their love ultimately heals them from their heartbreak. In turn, their love promises to sustain them into the future and buoy them through life’s future challenges. The Epilogue scenes support this latter notion, as they depict Arianna and Noah growing as a couple, working through their past trauma, and looking ahead to their new life together. These final sequences resolve the overarching narrative conflict and lend Arianna and Noah’s story a hopeful, redemptive resolution.
