𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞 / Rafe Cameron

Prologue

Growing up in Figure Eight meant certain things were inevitable. The summer parties, the beach bonfires, and the endless waves of gossip that washed over the Kook community like the tides. but for Serena, Nothing felt more inevitable that the Camerons.

She had been best friends with Sarah Cameron for as long as she could remember. The kind of friendship that came naturally, like breathing. Sleepovers in the grand Cameron mansion, sailing trips with Ward at the helm, and countless memories that bound their lives together. Serena had always felt at home with Sarah. It was the rest of the family that was the problem.

Specifically, Rafe Cameron．

From the moment they met, Serena and Rafe had never gotten along. It wasn't just that Rafe was older or that he carried himself with the arrogance of someone who knew the world bent to his will—it was that he went out of his way to be insufferable. He'd tease her at every opportunity, his sharp words laced with condescension and that signature smirk of his, one that made Serena's blood boil.

Their clashes were infamous. At every party, every family event, Rafe would find her, and somehow, they always end up bickering. Sarah would roll her eyes and laugh, but to Serena, it was personal. Rafe embodied everything she hated about their world: the entitlement, the recklessness, the belief that money could fix anything.

She had spent years hating him. Years trying to avoid his piercing blue eyes and the way they always seemed to find her in a crowded room, as if he could sense her frustration from miles aways.

But what Serena could never admit, not even to herself, was that the tension between them wasn't just born out of hatred. There was something else there, lurking beneath the surface — something she had tried to bury for as long as she could remember.

It wasn't until this summer, the summer that changed everything, that she realized maybe what she felt for Rafe Cameron wasn't hatred at all.
It was something far more profound.