Jordan Hadley, a student at Doral State university, tends bar at the pub Grounders, hoping to make money to pay off her college loans. On the night of her 19th birthday, her boss, Shel, lets her get off work early. Jordan phones her boyfriend, Cole Lawson, to pick her up, as her car is wrecked. She does not have money to get her car repaired since she loaned it to the hard-partying Cole.

When Cole does not answer her phone, Jordan decides to wait for him at the nearby theater so that he can get her at 2:00 am, as scheduled. The 1980s horror classic Evil Dead is playing at the theater. Jordan brings in the single serve of wine and the pack of donuts that Shel gave her as a birthday present. Jordan spills the wine and drops her phone in the aisle and crawls down to retrieve her phone. She runs into tattooed and tall Pike Lawson, who, unknown to her, is Cole’s dad. Pike uses the flashlight on his phone to help Jordan locate her device.

Jordan decides to sit next to Pike to avoid her abusive ex-boyfriend, Jay McCabe, who is also at the theater.