#my first thought was 'did the internet flake out and confuse tumblr into thinking i was blocking ads or something'

[acerikus]

?????? Tumblr's doing this in the app now too????

[skakeeper]

Coming Out of Her Shell Preview.

This is a preview of my new story called "Coming Out of Her Shell" If you want to read the whole thing feel free to go to Skakeepers ticklish tales and read it for free! Any and all feed back is welcome!

 It was a cloudy autumn day in the city and 23 year old Lee was on the bus just scrolling on her phone through tumblr. The mindlessly scrolling comes to a stop when she gets a notification that she was waiting for. Oh Ty got back to me, he says he’s ready for me she thinks to herself with a slight smile. It was just under a year ago that she discovered the tickle community on that site and it piqued her interest. The friendship, the laughter, the support and care is something that is new to her. It’s nothing like how she grew up where her only friends were one’s who were approved by her parents, and her parents were extremely reserved. Now that she thinks about it, she thinks she saw her father only laugh twice and never cry. So this whole thing is uncharted territory for her. 

 It was after a month of scrolling and some interaction that she decided to start to post her own thoughts. Never thinking anyone would care enough about them to even like, much less spark friendships. That’s where Ty comes in. She and him connected about 8 months ago on a random post that they both liked and struck up a conversation with him. After months of back and forth of anxiety filled conversation, they discovered that you are in the same city, and it took another 3 months for them to agree to meet up. To the shock of both of them, Lee was the one who suggested they meet. After talking with other friends in the tickle community, she asked to meet him at a coffee shop that is in the middle of the city. It was a public place, multiple exits and no strings attached. In fact both of them agreed that they would just meet for coffee and there would be no tickling whatsoever. That was two weeks ago, since that time they have met a second and a third time at the same shop. Today was the day they agreed to have their first session at Ty’s apartment. As the bus approaches his stop, she sends “Getting off the bus now” and she thinks about her outfit for the hundredth time. She is in one of her favorite blue hoodie which is a size bigger than it needed to be, because it makes it easier to hide from the world, her favorite pair of gray sweatpants and her beach sandals. When she was choosing what to wear the thought of Well, I am going to be tickled today, might as well make it a bit easy for him. The bus comes to a stop and she gets off. Here goes nothing she thinks and swallows the fear that Ty is a murderer. Thanks to her upbringing, everyone on the internet not approved by her parents is a murderer who only wants one thing. Thanks to her new tumblr friends, she knows that that's not true, but it takes a while to get over years of fear baiting by your family. Taking a deep breath to push the fear down, she puts one sandaled foot in front of the other. Looking down she sees the nice work that the nail salon did on her pedicure and hopes that Ty likes it. She had her toes painted in his favorite color, red. 

 As she walks up to the front door of his apartment building, the door opens and there Ty is standing in the doorway . He is beaming from ear to ear and she could swear his eyes had small diamonds in it with how they glint in the light. “Lee!!!” He says with boyish glee and excitement in his voice. She gets to the landing and he holds his arms open for a hug, a hug she accepts. “I am so happy you came, I was so nervous that you wouldn’t” He admits as he leads her in and shuts the door behind her. He turns to walk to his apartment “but I said I would” she says confused, she tries to keep her word. “Well…” he says as he opens the door to his apartment and invites her in “... sadly I have been ghosted and flaked on by people. The last session I had was over 6 years ago.” He admits a bit dejected and she sees the smile on his face falter for a second before he looks back at her with it back at full strength. “But that's the past.” He says.  Why would people do that to other people? Ghosting? Flaking? That’s mean. People aren’t play things to be used and thrown away. She is lost in that thought and it must have shown when he says “Hey, are you ok?” Snapping out of it she looks up to him and says “oh… Uh… Yeah… I was just thinking about how can people be mean like that? I was raised to do what I was say” she responds thoughtfully. He puts his hand on her shoulder “Sadly, not everyone is like that. But the fact that it causes you to pause and say that, it means a lot.” His smile softens from one of glee to one of caring. His hand slips from her shoulder to her back and puts a bit of pressure on it to urge her forward. “Lets sit on the couch, and talk about what is going to happen today” He says as they walk to the living room.