“This is my emotional support dog,” I said, holding Brad up even higher. He panted at the Raptor. “He goes everywhere with me. I am, um, emotionally unsupported without him.” I said a silent apology for all the people who actually relied on emotional support animals, since I was about to besmirch their good names and actual needs.

“Really,” the Raptor said, raising his eyebrows.

“Yah,” I said, then a second later wondered where that had come from. Did this person have an accent? I decided just to go with it.

“It’s true,” Mateo jumped in.

“So true,” Archie added.

“The truest,” chimed in Alyssa. She and Archie had taken seats next to each other on the couch, settling in like they were watching a movie.

“I’ve heard that kind of thing before,” the Raptor said, shaking his head. “Down the hall, in Five A, they were trying to convince me they needed an emotional support goldfish. I mean, come on.”

“This is very real,” I said, running my hand over Brad’s head. “Do you want to see what happens when I’m without him?”

“Uh,” the Raptor said, looking around. “Not really…”

“Here,” I said, thrusting Brad toward him. I saw the Raptor recoil and I immediately liked him less, not that he was starting with a huge surplus, because Brad was clearly a very good boy.

“I’ll take him,” Mateo said, jumping in and taking the dog from me. He settled him in the crook of his arm and started scratching Brad’s belly, all the while looking at me like he was trying to figure out what was currently happening and why his normally silent stepsister was apparently losing her mind.

“Look,” the Raptor said, “I don’t have time for this—”

I burst into tears. Not quiet crying, with a single tear running down my cheek. Big, ugly, heaving sobs. I’d always been able to start crying at a moment’s notice. It was like there was an untapped reservoir of emotion just behind a door, and all I had to do was give it a nudge. “My puppy,” I sobbed.

“Oh my god,” the Raptor said, looking horrified.

“This is the best thing I’ve ever seen,” Alyssa whispered to Archie.

“I know. I wish we had popcorn.”

“Give her the dog back,” the Raptor said, sounding panicked.

I took a deep breath and then screamed for all I was worth, trying not to smile as I did so. You get to yell all the time when you’re acting, and there was just something so cathartic about it.

“Stop that!” the Raptor said, covering his ears as I started to cry again, this time in little shaky breathless sobs.