Free KNOWN BY MY HEART by Michelle Bennett Page A

parted ways, with Monica having her fun and Jasmine submitting to her best friend’s whims.
     
    At home, Monica was more than satisfied after having seen the images of Jasmine captured by the camera. With Jasmine’s naturally beautiful smiling face and her hair being blown by the wind, the image was perfect for her profile picture. Although it was not Monica’s intention to mean harm to her best friend, she just decided to use Jasmine’s picture, at least only to "Sunset."
     
    True enough, Sunset was more than impressed by what he saw in the photo, and for some reason, he felt his heart beating loud for the first time. He stared at the picture used by Monica for a long time. He felt it was odd for a man like him to react to a picture that way. There seems to be no end to Marco duplicating Jasmine’s picture, pasting the hard print on his wall while uploading the digital copy to all his gadgets as his wallpaper. The image of Jasmine smiling and staring at him, coupled with the peach sunset and ocean in the background made his dream girl real whenever he closes his eyes.
     
    In a couple of days, Marco was already decided to have a more committed and constant communication with Monica. The relationship grew stronger each day as both Monica and Sunset never missed to be present at their committed online date. On the sixth month of their friendship, Sunset attempted to ask Monica if she could show herself on her PC's camera. Fortunately for Monica, she has a valid reason to tell Sunset that her brother’s outdated laptop could not support a camera connection.
     
    Perhaps it was Monica’s background and experience that kept Sunset interested on her. The similar fondness for nature and country living attracted him to Monica all the more that their constant communication is almost reaching their first year anniversary of friendship. Sunset seems to like Monica, but still it wasn’t enough to make his heart beat the way he expected a true love would do. Nevertheless, in his heart he would still want to keep a relationship with Monica, invest some more time and see from there where it would take him in the future. Believing Monica’s excuses for not showing up through the webcam, Marco contented himself with his friendship with Monica even though it would entail communicating with her without the use of a camera.
     
    While Monica was toying with the digital camera and her brother’s laptop, Jasmine was tending her garden at the other simpler country house for a biology class assignment. With calloused hands, she knows just how to handle both heavy and light tasks. The only tasks that inhibit her are those done with modern technology. Jasmine knew that being a lifeguard, she should be more interested in living creatures, especially those like the plants she could use for her life-saving assignments. Also, she has to study for the next day’s biology exams to stay at the top of her class. Moreover, she could foresee Monica her buddy will again be copying from her.
     
    True enough, Jasmine’s and Monica’s exam went well, and it gave Monica a reason to invite Jasmine to go unwind, this time in the town’s Internet café where she could go surf online while Jasmine did research and studied.
     
    Monica couldn’t help but smile at her full Inbox and social networking profile page filled with virtual gifts sent by Sunset. Being a computer geek, Sunset flooded Monica’s Inbox with love messages, including a virtual album where all the pictures she used were compiled artistically and accompanied by their favourite old country theme song, "Miles Away." To Monica’s surprise, the very last picture she saw from the virtual album is the picture of a tall, well-built, dark, handsome young man smiling at her. Below the picture is a caption that read, "Yes, this is me, Sunset!"
     
    Immediately, Monica sent a thank you via instant messaging and almost instantly received a "You’re welcome, love - happy anniversary!" message. As