Asterism

39. matthews, 9

TO have the capacity to recognize, establish a connection with, and maintain one partner, is an uncommon phenomenon in the animal kingdom.

Humans beings still share it though, pair bonding, with many different species. From penguins to prairie voles to snowy owls to swans, they find their mate, usually by scent, and their brains are wired to stay with that mate for life.

Prairie voles in particular are so loyal that they'll fight other females who try to get near them, and they become extremely depressed if their mate dies. Other species, like swans, are socially monogamous but not sexually monogamous, and snowy owl males have been known to mate with more than one female.

Penguins, as monogamous as they are, spend most of their time separated from their mates, usually by hundreds and sometimes even thousands of miles, always managing to find each other acoustically.

Humans are strange in that they've managed to pick up all of the pair bonding practices from the animal kingdom, for better or worse. Able to pair bond, able to form powerful love connections and establish someone as more important than others for decades and decades, humans are also able to grieve the loss of their partner temporarily, and move on to find another soulmate connection in someone else. There are those who are promiscuous, and those who cheat, just like in the animal kingdom.

Marley almost laughed to herself as she recalled a pair bonding habit of the dik-diks, a species of tiny antelope. They follow around their female mates all year long, sticking close to them and over-marking the females' scents with their own so no other male can pick them up.

That's one pair bonding ritual Marley is sure exists in humans, as she witnesses it all the time in her mate.

Marley slid her fingers through the baby hairs at the back of Aiden's head as she stood behind his seat at their table, where he was mashing his thumbs on his phone screen. "If you're not my spitfire this is assault," he mumbled absentmindedly.

"Well, that's very prairie vole of you," Marley murmured, causing him to look up from his phone as she sat beside him, glancing around at the empty seats.

"Prairie vole?"

"Yeah. They mate for life, too. And the males are quite aggressive towards other interested females. Where is everyone?"

Aiden's primary focus was still his phone, but he answered her. "Greyson and that...glasses girl, are dancing. Johnson and the...angry cheerleader went for a walk to talk. Gabby went to go to the bathroom, and Leo followed her."

He shook his head at something on his screen, gritting his teeth in frustration. Marley smiled knowingly before she snatched the phone from his grip, setting it on the table facedown.

"No pestering," she reminded him.

He massaged the stress lines in his face with his hands. His fitted suit aged him, but in every delectable way, and turning eighteen had significantly reduced any teenage features that still lingered. Aiden Matthews is a man, and right now looked even more so as he shouldered the burden of parenting his brother despite state lines between them.

Marley bit her lip, imagining he had looked like this when she met him.

Yeah. They probably would've beat Jordan and Trish to the punch in the bus bathroom.

"I told that little shit no drinking, but his Snapchat's a mess. There's a video of the Texan chick dancing on a table. I can smell the weed in that fucking basement from here. I could see Julian's older brother in one of the videos, where I'm pretty sure they're playing beer pong. I told him not to-and Julian's a little too goddamn close in that last selfie. Fuck it, I'm calling Texan chick's parents. You know what, I could be on a flight-"