Bully

Bully (2013) by Penelope Douglas is the first book in the Fall Away series and was originally published in 2013. Douglas is a renowned new adult dark romance author, and Bully follows a high schooler named Tate who falls in love with her childhood-best-friend-turned bully, Jared. Together, Jared and Tate must undergo the arduous process of repairing their damaged relationship. 

The Fall Away series marks Douglas’s entry into the writing scene, and Bully earned her a nomination for the 2013 Goodreads Choice Award for Readers’ Favorite Debut Author. The story explores The Cyclical Nature of Abuse while insisting upon The Harsh Lessons of Adolescence and examining The Challenge of Repairing Relationships. 

This guide refers to the 2013 Penguin Random House edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, death, bullying, sexual violence and harassment, emotional abuse, child abuse, sexual content, addiction, substance use, and cursing.

Plot Summary

Bully opens with a flashback to a party that happened a year ago, before the protagonist, Tate, left to complete a year-long exchange program in France. In this earlier scene, Tate’s best friend, K.C., pressured her to attend the party despite Tate’s fear that Jared (her next-door neighbor and former best friend, who is now just a bully) might be there. Jared was indeed at the party, along with his best friend, Madoc; together, the two intimidated Tate throughout the evening. They then stole her car keys and threw them in the pool, forcing her to dive in and get them. When Madoc commented on Tate’s exposed nipples, Tate punched him and felt empowered for doing so.

In the present, Tate has returned from France and is now preparing to start her senior year of high school. She dreads interacting with Jared and hopes not to experience any drama, but K.C. believes that Tate should stand up to him. K.C. also mentions that during Tate’s year-long absence, Jared seemed moodier and less angry.

The narrative reveals that Tate’s mother died of cancer when she was a child. Tate and Jared were best friends for years, often meeting each other in the tree that grows between their two houses, but their friendship fell apart after Jared returned from a summer with his abusive father. Now, because Tate’s father often works out of town, she has three months on her own. One night, she sees Jared through her window and wonders why he hates her so much. 

On Friday, Jared throws a loud party, and he mocks Tate when she goes over to ask him to quiet down. In revenge, she yells, “COPS!” which causes the crowd to scatter.

On the first day of senior year, Madoc molests Tate in the cafeteria, so she knees him in the groin, causing others to laugh and cheer. Later, Jared approaches Tate in the locker room while she is exposed and vulnerable. When she tries not to show any emotion, Jared admits to being intrigued by her new, tougher attitude. 

In her film and literature class, Tate is paired with Jared as a discussion buddy for the year, and the prospect fills her with dread. 

Later, when Jared holds another loud party, Tate turns off the power to his house. In response, he breaks into her house and tries to intimidate her again.

As time goes on, K.C. breaks up with her boyfriend, Liam, and starts making amorous advances toward Jared in order to make Liam jealous. When Tate learns of this ruse, she feels betrayed and tries to warn K.C. against getting involved with Jared, but K.C. doesn’t want to hear it. 

Meanwhile, Tate’s classmate Ben asks her out on a date, and she agrees even though her preoccupation with Jared prevents her from feeling any attraction to Ben. 

Late one evening, Tate witnesses Jared arriving home from the racing Loop outside of town. When he gets involved in a brawl with a few other local drivers, Tate goes out to help him but finds that Jared and Madoc already have the situation under control.

The next day, Tate’s father tells her that her grandmother will be visiting for a week. Tate’s grandmother arrives and tries to encourage Tate to open up with Jared. Tate considers doing this, but later that night, when she sits on the tree between their houses and sees Jared at his window, he tells her that he doesn’t care about her at all. 

In class, Tate performs a monologue about her broken friendship with Jared, describing his kind act of helping her overcome her grief after her mother’s death. However, she also declares in the monologue that he is now nothing more than a stranger. Jared is affected by the speech but says nothing. Later that night, Tate finds Jared’s dog trapped outside in the rain. She finds Jared’s door open and lets the dog inside, but she also finds Jared outside, drinking. Jared tries to kiss Tate, but she stops him short and leaves, afraid to let a bully back into her life.

Ben invites Tate to go to the Loop with him. There, Tate watches Jared race against another driver. The race is too close, and the Racemaster suggests letting the drivers’ girlfriends settle the question with a second round. Jared asks Tate to drive his car, and she reluctantly agrees to race. He sits in the passenger seat and guides her through the course, and she wins. 

At the afterparty, Ben drinks too much, so Jared insists on giving Tate a ride home. He drives recklessly, and Tate has to punch him to get him to stop. She jumps out and demands that he explain his anger, so Jared admits that he has always been jealous of any boys who wanted to date Tate. He adds that the summer he spent with his father also instilled a lot of anger in him. Jared then teases Tate sexually before driving her home. That night, Tate has a sexual dream about him. 

The following day, Madoc asks Tate to the Homecoming Dance to prove that he can be a gentleman, and Tate believes that his offer must be some kind of setup. Madoc begs her to agree, and she finally does. After school, she encounters Jared. They kiss, but Tate is still suspicious of Jared’s motives.

A girl named Piper, who wants to date Jared, starts threatening Tate and ordering her not to date him; Piper also taunts Tate by claiming that she knows where Jared mysteriously disappears to every weekend. Tate starts to wonder about this and sneaks into Jared’s room one night when she thinks he’s gone. However, Jared is home and takes advantage of the opportunity to seduce Tate. She is willing to have sex with him, but they are interrupted by one of his friends, who declares that it’s time to head to the Loop for the latest race. Jared invites Tate to come. As she agrees, Tate finds a hidden picture in Jared’s room; it depicts a boy who has been badly beaten. She takes the picture with her.

At the track, Jared wins his race, and when Piper continues her provocative behavior, Tate loses control and attacks her outright, becoming a bully herself. On the drive home, Tate tries to ask Jared where he goes on the weekends, but he doesn’t want to answer. 

On the following day, Tate returns home from an outing to find the tree between her house and Jared’s covered in lights. Jared is waiting for Tate in her bedroom, and he finally admits that when he went to see his father at age 14, he met his half-brother, Jaxon, and they both suffered extreme abuse at their father’s hands. Their father beat them and forced them to become involved in crime, so Jared eventually ran away. While Jaxon now lives with a happy foster family, Jared still goes to see him every Sunday. He also goes to visit his father in prison on Saturdays. After hearing all of this, Tate feels closer to Jared than ever, and the two have sex for the first time.

Jared and Madoc pair up to take Tate to the Homecoming dance. At the afterparty, Tate and Jared have sex in one of the bedrooms. A few days later, a video of that encounter circulates. It appears to have originated from Jared’s phone, and an enraged Tate destroys Jared’s car in retaliation. However, Jared claims that he isn’t responsible. Together, they track down Jared’s lost phone and find it in Piper’s locker. Piper admits that she and another classmate set up the plan to publicly humiliate Jared and Tate. As a result, Tate has to deal with the backlash of this exposure, and she apologizes to Jared for her misplaced revenge. 

Later, as Jared and Tate relax together in Tate’s room, Jared gives her a charm bracelet featuring a heart that symbolizes their love. Tate now feels complete, as though she has finally found what she has always needed.