Tommy first appears on a street corner. What begins as a sexual transaction becomes something harder to define: part friendship, part rescue attempt, part addiction, and part story the narrator tells himself about what Tommy needs - and what he might still be able to save.

But Tommy is not always abusive. Sometimes, he is affection and a caretaker in his own right, and sometimes he is unexpectedly intimate and suggestive. But when you think it's going right, and you think you've got yourself figured out in this world, Tommy smacks you back. Tommy lies, disappears, returns, and asks for help without always accepting it. The narrator keeps trying to assign meaning to each encounter, even when survival, loneliness, drugs, and immediate need may explain far more than either man wants to admit.

“Tommy” is a dark, intimate piece of queer au ...