Does this tingling mean oral herpes?

[kitkat1864]

My friend has terrible oral herpes outbreaks and she's had them since she was a kid. I have never had a cold sore in my life and I am 21yrs old. I never knew anyone with cold sores until I met my friend in college. I don't share things with her when she has a visible outbreak but I do share drinks and chapstick occasionally when I cannot see an outbreak. On 3 separate occasions , one of which was last yr, I got tingling just above my top lip. This bothered me and made me paranoid that I had caught oral herpes from my friend. I would put tea tree oil undiluted on the tingly area and typically the next day the feeling would be gone. Some times the tingly area would be slightly red, as if I'd eaten a red popsicle. This tingling has never manifested a sore but it freaks me out. How can I protect myself if I haven't contracted this without hurting my friend's feelings? (ps I have had no sexual experiences with anyone)

[feelingundone]

In the absence of lesions the tingling isn't likely (in fact it would be very rare to get prodrome symptoms and no outbreak) to be hsv related at all. Sharing drinks isn't risky either. The chapstick on the other hand is a no no. Never use chapstick right after someone else. Hsv needs to penetrate. Either through a break in the skin or mucous membrane. Or it can be massaged it. That's exactly the case with chapstick.
All in all it doesn't sound hsv related.