Putting his other arm around her when she leaned against him, he hugged her tightly. "I wouldn't say he's only a shrug to them. They're...normal people. He was different. Most of them tried. But, it's hard for many people to connect with people who are different. The fact he never really would be able to make that connection at all...it just made it more difficult for them to know how to deal with him. It's not that they don't care. They just never had that connection and didn't understand a lot of the things he did."
Laughing, he squeezed her once and then let go. "Guilty as charged. I do spend a lot of time with Brian." Ever since his birthday, John had been making an effort to spend more time with Brian and less time on his computer if he didn't have to be working. There was still a lot of work to do. But, he wasn't losing that connection between them again if he could help it. "But, I don't have to spend all my time with just him. I mean, I suck at most games and I won't play any of those shooter games that fuck with my aim. But, you could bring the console over and spend an evening with you and Brian laughing at how badly I play, if you wanted. I'm pretty sure once college basketball is over Troy's out of 'must watch'. But, I'm sure you could ask him about hanging out sometime. You've got plenty of friends here who'd be happy to keep you company, Claudia."