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“What?” Jon held the files he had taken for his research a little tighter and stared at Sasha. She was one who he hadn’t really had too many interactions with besides hearing of her from Tim, she had taken residence over a desk near Tim’s but Jon had taken one further from the rest of the researchers.
“Why are the rumors all different from what Tim tells me?” The woman asked once more, putting a hand to her hip as she watched Jon. She had followed him into the library where he was looking for more research materials and stopped him near the end of one of the stacks. One that was, quite unfortunately, a dead end. The fact that she was watching him at all, much less seeming to study him, had Jon on edge.
“I’m not sure what you mean?”
“You keep your head down and work. Everyone seems convinced that you are an asshole, if I’m being blunt. Tim talks of you and it seems you’re like a skittish cat. I’m more willing to trust Tim when he talks about someone than rumors, but they are so wildly different. All I have heard if I ask is that you are pompous, egotistical, and a laundry list of other things. Why?”
“Ah.” Jon couldn’t think of anything else to say, he never thought there would be anyone who would want to get close enough to be his friend, much less someone else who would notice inconsistencies in everything that seemed to follow him.
“I am certain you have heard from at least Tim, if not any of the others, about the things I can get access to. So, you should be clear with me on what is going on.” That clicked in Jon’s mind, she was protective of Tim. Of course she would be, no matter how hard he had tried to keep the other at arms length but they seemed to wiggle into his space.
“I uh, well I’m not doing anything actually.” He cringed himself hearing what he was saying and rushed to clear up, “It's nothing that I can control. I don’t do it on purpose, it's just people seem to form their own ideas of me and no matter what I do I can never change that. People may understand when interacting with me but the moment they turn away they forget. I honestly don’t know how Tim doesn’t forget, he is the only one I have seen who doesn’t. And well, you seem to also not fall under it if you were realizing something was wrong.”
“You don’t control it, and it affects others around you? How did it start then?” There was the curiosity that Tim had mentioned that Sasha had and now it had forced Jon into a hard place. He really didn’t want to talk about it, but he had thought about telling Tim since she had seemed to be upset by the rumors that seemed to cling to Jon like cobwebs.
“Could we get Tim if I am going to tell this? I would rather he be present as well so she can understand about the rumors as well.”
“A book ate your identity?” Tim asked, staring at Jon from the other side of the table.
“To put it in incredibly simplistic terms then yes. A book ate my identity, but more it took the ability for others to perceive me any deeper than their first assumptions.”
“So that is why none of the rumors add up.” Sasha muttered from where she was sitting next to Tim. Then she looked up, her expression taking on a more sad tone to it, “Since you were eight?” Jon simply nodded which caught Tim’s attention and he shared a look with Sasha.