Summary:A Cut girl with seven brothers falls for Rafe Cameron, turning her messy life into a different kind of chaos.
Authors note: based on "wrong way" by sublime!
You grew up on the Cut with seven brothers.
Seven.
Which meant there was never any quiet, never enough food in the fridge, and never a second where somebody wasn't yelling your name from another room.
Your dad spent more time with a bottle than he did with any of you. When money got tight—which was basically always—he got you a job cleaning boats at the marina.
Most of them belonged to rich Kooks.
The biggest one belonged to the Camerons.
Every morning you'd drag a bucket across the dock, climb aboard, and scrub salt stains while pretending you didn't notice people looking at you like you were invisible.
Life felt stuck.
Same docks.
Same waves.
Same problems.
Then summer got louder.
A kegger was happening out by the beach, music carrying through the warm night air. For once, none of your brothers knew where you were.
You showed up wearing an old bikini you'd borrowed from a friend and a pair of shorts hanging loose around your waist.
The beach was packed.
Bonfires.
Cheap drinks.
People laughing too loud.
And standing near one of the fires was Rafe Cameron.
You'd seen him around plenty.
Hard not to when you spent half your week cleaning his family's boat.
Most days he barely looked your way.
Tonight was different.
You caught him staring once.
Then twice.
Then every time you looked over.
When he realized you'd noticed, he just smirked and looked away like it didn't matter.
It shouldn't have mattered.
But somehow it did.
"Thought you hated keggers," you said when he wandered over later.
He shrugged.
"Thought you hated Kooks."
"Most of them."
That actually made him laugh.
After that, things happened fast.
Too fast, maybe.
You started running into him everywhere.
At the marina.
At gas stations.
Driving around Figure Eight.
It got to the point where it almost felt planned.
Like the island was pushing you together.
Your brothers hated him immediately.
Every single one.
The first time Rafe showed up near your house, three of them came outside before he could even get out of his truck.
You thought a fight was about to happen.
Instead, he leaned against the door and said, "Nice meeting you guys."
Which somehow made them angrier.
Life got chaotic after that.
But not in the way it always had been.
Not overdue bills.
Not broken appliances.
Not wondering how dinner was gonna happen.
A different kind of chaos.
Late-night drives with the windows down.
Arguments that lasted ten minutes before turning into laughter.
Sneaking away from your brothers just to get five minutes alone.
The whole island seemed to have an opinion about the two of you.
Pogues thought you were crazy.
Kooks thought he was.
Maybe both were right.
One afternoon you were cleaning the Cameron boat again, scrubbing at a stain that wouldn't budge.
Rafe appeared at the edge of the dock.
"You know that's not your job anymore."
You rolled your eyes.
"It literally is."
"No."
He stepped onto the boat.
"You got better things to do."
For a second, neither of you said anything.
The water rocked softly beneath the hull.
The sun reflected across the harbor.
For once, everything felt still.
You looked at him.
He looked at you.
And somehow all the noise—the brothers, the fights, the money problems, the rumors—felt far away.
Life wasn't magically fixed.
Your dad still drank.
The bills still came.
The Cut was still the Cut.
But for the first time in a long time, it felt like maybe your story wasn't gonna stay the same forever.
Maybe it was finally heading somewhere else.
And standing there on the boat you'd spent months cleaning, with the summer wind blowing through your hair and Rafe Cameron grinning at you like he'd won something important, you thought maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.
