52 pages • 1 hour read
Mercedes RonMy Fault
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2024A 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 14-23Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 14 Summary: “Nick”
Nick avoids spending time at home, still angry with Noah for what happened at the races. At the same time, he can’t stop thinking about kissing her and seeing her drive his car. To distract himself, he parties for four days and has sex with a different girl each night.
One morning, he comes home to find Noah having breakfast with Jenna. He’s annoyed that they’re friends because he and Jenna have been close for years. Raffaella enters and tells Nick and Noah that she and William are going to New York on business, and they need Nick to stay at home with Noah. Nick reluctantly agrees.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Noah”
Seeing Nick makes Noah remember their kiss. She still feels bad about causing him to lose his money and car to Ronnie. Meanwhile, she keeps stewing over Dan and Beth. Jenna interrupts her thoughts, noting the tension between her and Nick. She suggests that Noah pursue a relationship with Nick to have some fun and let loose, but Noah laughs her off.
Nick throws a party after William and Raffaella leave. Noah is enjoying herself until Kay sends her more pictures of Dan and Beth together. Nick finds her looking at the photos and insists she let go of Dan. He pulls her into another kiss, and Noah gives in to the moment. Nick pulls away and leaves. Alone, Noah tells herself that getting involved with Nick isn’t going to solve anything.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Nick”
Nick rejoins the party, determined to stop thinking about Noah. Lion interrupts his thoughts, inviting him to another party the next day. Nick declines because he has to go to Las Vegas.
In the morning, Nick drives to Las Vegas to see his five-year-old half-sister Madison Grason. After his mom Anne left, she married William’s former client Robert Grason. Nick found out about their marriage and daughter Madison when he ran into them while partying in Las Vegas with his friends. At the time, Nick had been involved with gangs and was arrested twice. William secured visits with Madison for him, predicated on a promise to clean up his act and go back to school. Nick returned to school but hasn’t stopped partying. He fears that if William finds out, he won’t be able to see Madison anymore.
Nick meets Madison and her social worker Anne at the park, where they spend a few hours together. Madison is sad when Nick has to leave. Nick promises Madison she’s the only girl in his life, and they say their goodbyes.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Noah”
Unable to sleep, Noah goes downstairs to watch a movie. She hasn’t seen Nick and wonders what he’s doing. She can’t stop thinking about their kiss. Nick comes home and joins her on the couch. He won’t tell her where he was, simply saying he was with “someone who needs [him” (146). Then he pulls Noah into a kiss. She straddles him and they continue kissing until Nick pushes her off and storms out.
Raffaella wakes Noah the next morning for an interview at St. Marie’s, Noah’s new prep school. Noah whines, insisting she’d rather attend public school. After the interview, Raffaella and William take Noah to get her own car. She refuses to let William buy it and chooses a vintage Beetle instead.
When they return home, Nick sees the car and makes fun of Noah, who tells him not to talk to her. Nick’s demeanor softens, and they move to kiss each other again. Lion and Jenna’s arrival interrupts them. The friends drive to “an abandoned industrial bay” where Nick is going to participate in the fights he and his friends regularly stage (153). Noah is shocked and uncomfortable.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Nick”
Nick dismisses his thoughts of Noah to focus on the fight. He wins but afterward, immediately discovers that Noah is missing. Lion says she left when she saw Nick get hit. Nick races outside to find her. Noah falls into his arms, overcome by emotion. She tells him she doesn’t like fighting but insists that she’s fine. Nick is irritated but isn’t sure why.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Noah”
Noah chastises herself for coming to the fights. She’s even more upset when she sees Nick’s bloody hands and face. Finally, she decides to call a car. Nick gets upset, worried she’ll reveal their location and get them in trouble. Before she leaves, Nick asks where she learned to race cars. Noah refuses to answer, saying it’s her secret and she has no reason to tell Nick anything.
The next day, Noah washes her car while thinking about Dan. She misses him even after his betrayal. Suddenly, she looks up to see Dan in the driveway. Raffaella appears, revealing that she bought Dan a ticket to California because she thought it would make Noah feel better.
After Raffaella leaves, Dan begs Noah for forgiveness, insisting he still loves and wants to be with her. Furious, Noah shows Dan to the guest room and races into Nick’s room. She grabs him, and they kiss. Nick pulls away and demands to know what’s going on. She explains that Dan is there and begs him to help her handle the situation. Nick agrees to pretend they’re together so Dan will stop bothering Noah.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Nick”
Irritated and overwhelmed, Nick gets in his car and races to Anna’s house. He hopes sex will calm him down. However, when they start kissing, he can only think of Noah. Finally, Anna gives him a joint, and he calms down and enjoys the night with her.
Nick returns home at 3 am. He finds Noah sleeping with the light on in her room. He’s fascinated by her and doesn’t know why.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Noah”
In the morning, Noah finds Dan in the kitchen. He reiterates how sorry he is and how much he wants to be with her. Then Nick enters and kisses Noah. Noah tells Dan she’s moved on and doesn’t want to be with him. She and Nick run outside, and Nick tells her to kiss him because Dan is watching. Afterward, Noah looks up to see that Dan isn’t in the window and curses herself for getting involved with Nick again.
Desperate for some space, Noah decides to go for a run. Before she leaves, Dan corners her. Noah tells him she’s with Nick now and heads out. She runs into Nick, who seems genuinely worried about her.
Noah runs to the beach. She sees Mario and tells him about a new job she got at Bar 48. Mario promises to visit. That night, he shows up at the end of her shift and invites her to the movies. Then Nick shows up and tells Mario that Noah is with him. Out in the parking lot, Noah confronts Nick for interrupting her night with Mario. He kisses her until his phone starts buzzing. He says he has to go and leaves.
Chapter 22 Summary: “Nick”
After Noah leaves on her run, Nick buys Dan a new ticket and drives him to the airport. On the way, Dan tells Nick that Noah is trouble. Desperate to see her afterward, Nick goes to the bar, pulls her away from Mario, and kisses her in the lot. He loves the feeling of overpowering her and wants to continue the kiss. However, a call interrupts the moment, and he leaves.
Chapter 23 Summary: “Noah”
Noah and Nick don’t talk for the next week. Nick makes sure to only be home when Noah is working. One night, Nick comes home to find Noah cooking after getting off early from work. They talk about their relationship, and Nick insists they stay away from each other.
Noah tries to focus on work to distract herself from Nick. After work one night, she agrees to go for food with Jenna. Nick shows up and says he’s going, too. On the drive there, Nick suggests he and Noah go back to being stepbrother and stepsister. Noah argues that they aren’t family. Finally, they agree to be friends. They stop to pick up Anna, who’s annoyed that Noah is with them.
Noah, Nick, and Anna meet Jenna, Lion, and Mario at the restaurant. Everyone presses Noah about her racing history. She lies and says her uncle was a NASCAR driver. After the meal, Mario tries to pay for Noah, but Nick pays instead. The group parts ways so Mario can take Noah out for ice cream.
Chapters 14-23 Analysis
In these chapters, Noah and Nick are still largely in conflict, but the attraction between them is beginning to break through, developing the theme of The Relationship Between Love and Hate. The longer that Noah and Nick live together, the more conflicts arise between them. Their repeated physical encounters also further illustrate how enmity might evolve into romance. Nick’s feelings for Noah after the races exemplify the entanglement of these emotional extremes. Nick tries to avoid Noah because he “want[s] to grab [her] with her blond hair and honey-colored eyes and do it all to her, make her pay” for embarrassing him at the races and causing conflict with his friends (119). At the same time, another part of Nick “want[s] to make her afraid to even be near [him], to even breathe too loudly when [he is] in the room” (119). This passage captures the dichotomous nature of Nick’s feelings for Noah, the push and pull of attraction and repulsion.
Meanwhile, Noah is also “full of remorse and all kinds of other mixed-up feelings” regarding Nick (123). Nick still feels like her “worst nightmare,” but every time she and Nick are in each other’s company, Noah feels powerless to resist her attraction to him (123). When they kiss at Nick’s house party, for example, Noah’s internal monologue reveals her conflicted state of mind:
He couldn’t know what he was doing. Had he forgotten whom he was kissing? We hated each other, even more now that I had lost his favorite toy and his archenemy had fired a gun at his back. It was my fault…but if all that was true, why couldn’t I stop enjoying these hot, unexpected caresses? (129).
Amidst yet another kiss with Nick, Noah’s mind is reeling, illustrated by her harried narrative tone. She asks herself questions about both Nick’s enigmatic intentions and her own curious feelings. The passage again marries references to anger and desire, which underscores the novel’s thematic notion that love and hatred are linked and often manifest similarly because of their similar intensity.
As their relationship shifts, Nick and Noah’s cohabitation complicates both characters’ Search for Home and Belonging. The more frustrated Noah and Nick become with one another, the more difficult it becomes for them to live together and navigate their complex family situation. In Chapter 14, for example, Nick “part[ies] for four days straight” because he feels that he “[can’t] go home” as he doesn’t “know how [to] act” around Noah (119). Their kiss and argument at the races have changed Nick’s outlook—now he feels uncomfortable in Noah’s presence because he’s attracted to her and wants to be intimate with her again. At the same time, he’s still angry with Noah “for losing [his] most treasured possession” (119). His attraction and his frustration are entangled—seemingly competing emotions that effectively intensify Nick’s feelings for Noah. The same is true for Noah, who tries her best to distract herself from Nick and to avoid his presence using outings with Jenna and her new job at the bar. The home sphere is charged with tension and makes the characters feel out of place and on edge. Coupled with their newly changed home environment, their feelings exacerbate their dislocation, and the characters are both forced to seek home and belonging outside their new family home.
These chapters also introduce new narrative conflicts and reveal facets of the protagonists’ characters and backstories via Madison Grason’s and Dan’s characters. Introducing Madison within Nick’s storyline offers a fresh perspective on his character, complicating the portrait of him that’s been painted so far. Until Madison appears on the page in Chapter 16, Nick appears to be the selfish, entitled bad boy Noah thinks he is. However, when Nick spends time with his little sister in Las Vegas, he is both sensitive and compassionate. His relationship with Madison reveals Nick’s softer side and furthers the novel’s exploration of Overcoming Past Trauma. Nick has a complicated family past that he’s trying to navigate in the present. For Noah, this character development and revelation happens with the introduction of her father Dan. When he surfaces in California in Chapter 19, Noah’s painful memories resurface as well. The introduction of these ancillary relationships humanizes Nick and Noah and reveals that part of their character arcs involves finding healing from past trauma.
