From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 172: Journey to Las Vegas (2)

Ari could only stare at Carlos as if he were crazy.

What kind of nonsense was this?

In a couple of hours, they would be getting on the buses to drive to Las Vegas with all of their stuff to perform.

And now one of their main vocalists was telling him that he couldn’t make it to the performance?

Was this some kind of sick joke?

Ari decided to give Carlos the benefit of the doubt and listen to his explanation first.

"Explain."

"So..." Carlos stopped speaking, his lips moving as if he wanted to say something, but couldn’t get the words out.

"I’m listening. Go on."

"First of all, unclench your fist, mierda, I feel like you want to hit me." Carlos laughed lightly before sighing as he sat down, putting his motorcycle helmet off to the side.

"My parents have a thing, and I have to watch my siblings."

"A thing? A family emergency?"

"...Not really." Seeing that Carlos didn’t want to elaborate, Ari immediately blurted out his first thought.

"Hire a babysitter."

He was ready to pull up all the babysitting websites if necessary.

If need be, he could even donate to fund it.

"I’m trying, but I’m not getting any responses since it’s such short notice, and I don’t know if I can get one before the bus leaves here tomorrow, since it leaves really early. I wanted to inform you and the team ahead of time and apologize in advance since it really looks like I can’t make it." Carlos said quietly.

"You don’t have any other family or friends to dump them at? No offense to your siblings."

"None taken. And no, I don’t."

"How old are these siblings, by the way?"

"The ones left behind are in third, fifth, and sixth grade."

So, they were 8, 10, and 11 years old.

Wasn’t that old enough to be left at home for like a day?

"...can’t you just leave them at home until we or your parents get back? I’m assuming they’re home now?"

"They’re home, but they’re sleeping, and my parents are still home for a couple more hours. They just let me come notify the production team, but I have to hurry back. Since we’re not getting back until past midnight, and my parents won’t be back for a couple of days, so...no. I can’t just leave them at home by themselves."

"I don’t mean to make you feel bad, but you’re going to abandon us? It’s literally a couple of hours before our performance. What the heck? Can’t you just tell your parents not to leave? What if you don’t go back at all? Won’t they have no choice but to stay with your siblings?" Ari asked in as gentle a tone as he could manage.

He personally couldn’t understand why Carlos’ parents were choosing now to do whatever it was that they were doing.

"I’m sorry." Carlos bowed his head, but Ari just held his hand up to stop him.

There was a lot that Ari wanted to say, but since he had always been an only child before being orphaned, it would probably come off as insensitive.

And what he needed right now wasn’t apologies or to blame Carlos, but solutions.

If they couldn’t find a babysitter in LA in time because Carlos would miss the bus driving them to Vegas, couldn’t they just find a babysitter in Las Vegas?

Clearly, Carlos could drive, so wouldn’t that work?

Ari sat still, organizing his idea in his head before getting up.

"Stay here, don’t leave. I’ll be back."

Ignoring Carlos’ apologetic yet confused face, Ari ran through the halls until he got to Benjamin’s room, quietly entering it and shaking the British boy awake from his bottom bunk bed.

"Wagawan? You should be sleeping, yeah? Place burning down?" Benjamin yawned sleepily as he sat up, exposing his shirtless body and wearing Superman pajama pants, along with a matching durag tied around his head.

"It’s basically burning. Our performance tomorrow is at stake."

Benjamin’s eyes immediately focused, and he got up, grabbing the glasses he usually wore when he took out his contacts and a hoodie before stepping out of the room in his slippers.

"What’s the issue?"

"Carlos," Ari replied simply as they walked to their practice room.

"What? Family issues? Not making it to our performance?" Surprisingly, Benjamin’s guesses were on target.

"Ya."

"F*cking hell mate." Benjamin cursed before sighing.

Once they got into the practice room, Benjamin sat down in front of Carlos with a simple expression.

"What’s the deal with your fam?"

"I have to watch my little siblings."

"Your parents?"

"They have something that came up."

"An emergency?"

"...no."

"Okay. This is not a problem; tell your parents no, hire a babysitter, dump the kids with other family members, or leave them home alone. They’re old enough to use the microwave, yeah? They won’t die in a day." Benjamin replied in a surprisingly cold tone as he counted off the options on his fingers.

"I can’t do that."

At Carlos’ apologetic yet determined expression, Benjamin began rubbing his eyes in annoyance.

"Look, bruv, I’m not trying to be rude, but if you were not around, what was your parents’ plan? You said it wasn’t an emergency, so what? They just decided to go on a trip? Go on vacation? This has been planned for a while. Why are they messing around now? Do they not care about what you want to do? This is important for you."

"...they don’t think this is that serious, and they think I’m wasting my time instead of working hard at the shop and helping out the family when they need it. The deal for me to even come on here was to help out as they needed, with no complaints," Carlos replied quietly.

"Arghhhhhhh," Benjamin shouted while clutching his head before taking a deep breath and turning to Ari.

"Alright, bruv, I’m sure you didn’t call me here to raise my blood pressure before I’ve had my morning tea, so what’s the plan?"

"Carlos drives his siblings to Las Vegas, and we find a babysitter in Vegas before the show. Afterward, he drives back."

"Okay. I like it. What do you need from me?"

"Help finding a babysitter and getting the performance venue address from production staff."

"I can do that. I can head to the computer room to look for sitters. Carlos, give me your info to plug in, yeah?"

"Wait. Wait. Wait. Before we get ahead of ourselves, I don’t have a car."

"You don’t?"

Carlos held up his motorcycle helmet as emphasis, and Ari smacked his head at the obvious mistake.

"Okay. Wait right there."

He got up once more, this time heading to Jamie’s room to go wake the blonde boy up.

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