Tickling is physical but also emotional
Allison, you said,
"I was only pissed off because it was Tonya doing the tickling, I'd have been ok with it if it were a cute guy." How we feel about getting tickled often depends on who is doing it to us.
In the early 1990s I witnessed an interesting tickle at work. The perpetrator was an older (age 70) fellow named Neil, the victim an attractive young (20-something) blonde named Kathy.
Neil, Kathy and I were standing near Kathy's desk. She had her back to Neil and me. Neil tickled her from behind, getting her under-arms. Was Kathy ticklish? You bet!
Besides seeing this fetching lass get tickled, the other thing that amused me was her two-part reaction. Kathy hadn't seen who tickled her. At first Kathy turned towards me, looking annoyed, as she thought
I had tickled her. But seeing I was too far away to have reached her, Kathy realized it was Neil. Instantly, the resentment on her face disappeared.
Kathy would have angered had I been the one who tickled her. But since it was Neil, it was okay with her. I'm guessing the intimacy of the act would have been objectionable were it me, someone she did not want touching her. But since Kathy's tickler turned out to be the older fellow Neil, her anger vanished.
Tickling is as communicative a form of touch as any other, isn't it? Kathy felt comfortable with Neil tickling her but would have stared me down were it my tickling fingers upsetting her sensitive flesh.