Excerpt from The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"Okay, Hoodie. Borneo and I are gonna go."

"Do you live around here?" I asked.

"No. I took an Uber here to walk the dog."

I laughed, and some of the tension melted. "Stupid question," I said. "It was good to meet you, Anna-Marie."

She took a step away, then turned back. "Hey," she said, and she took out her phone. "What's your Insta? I'll follow you."

I knew she meant Instagram, a picture app people had on their smartphones. I wasn't allowed to use it, but I didn't want her to know that. I reached into my pocket and took out my phone.

When she saw it, Anna-Marie broke into a huge smile. It lit up her whole face. Then she started laughing. "You have a flip phone?" she asked. "Wait, wait. Hold on. I have to snap this. Cassidy will never believe it."

I smiled for Anna-Marie's picture, feeling good that she was interested in me. Because I was interested in her. Her fingernails. Her whole-face smile.

"This is so cute."

She thought I was cute. I smiled at her. I thought she was cute too.

"The phone," she clarified. Not me. "Look how small it is. It's like a little baby phone. You know," she said, still laughing, "my nana has a flip phone too. You guys should hang out together. You can send each other predictive text messages, and read books with giant print." Now Anna-Marie's laughter was getting the best of her. "You guys could go out to dinner at four o'clock and read the menu through magnifying glasses and, like, talk about knitting patterns."

I was aware that I was being made fun of. I should have been upset. But I wasn't. I was ready to hang out with Anna-Marie's nana. I would absolutely go out to dinner with her nana, so long as it was a kosher restaurant. I'd make sure to brush up on my knitting, so our conversation would flow. Hopefully Anna-Marie would come too, and she could mock me incessantly while I sweated through layer after layer of clothing.

"Awesome," I said. "Tell her to give me a call."

Anna-Marie just waved goodbye. I watched Borneo drag her down the block. She disappeared around the corner onto Rhyd Lane.

Excerpted from The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum. Copyright © 2022 by Isaac Blum. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.