Rue returns home from rehab and vows to never become clean. 

She admits to her dealer that after her father's death, she had panic attacks and that the liquid valium gave her the feeling she always wanted: the world to quieten down. 

Thus, she would continue to do drugs, even though she didn't know whether they would be the death of her. 

She even turns to her old friend with the aim of getting her urine so that she can pass a drugs test. Her plan works, and she manages to fleece her mother to go to a party. 

At the party, she meets Jules, a new girl in town. Jules had just come from a motel in which she had sex with an older man named Cal. 

She later finds out that this is Nate's father. Nate tries to shame her in front of everyone, but she sets out to even the odds, and cuts her arm, spraying blood over him. 

In the end, she and Rue become fast friends, and decide to get high with each other.