Rumors move fast and burn out. Steady behavior moves slow and lasts. Let your week answer for you.

Talk travels quickly because it is cheap to pass on, and it fades for the same reason: nobody is invested enough to keep it going. What people believe about you over time gets built out of hundreds of ordinary observations, and those are hard to argue with. Defending yourself in the short term usually feeds the thing instead.

When something is going round, resist the urge to make a case. Go to practice, do the shift, be decent to the people in front of you, and let a week of that stand as the reply. Tell one person you trust what actually happened, and leave it there.