“No! Really! They were huge!” Spike paused on the steps leading out of the basement. He could hear Willow’s excited voice carrying through the door. Taking a seat on the steps, Spike waited patiently for the girl’s conversation to end. It would do him no good to interrupt them. They would only stare at him like they were waiting for his head to spin around like the little girl’s had in the “Exorcist.” If that happened, Spike figured for his next trick he could throw up spilt pea colored vomit.

“You can’t be serious!” Came Buffy’s giggled reply. Hearing the happy note made Spike’s heart clench. He was glad she was happy but sad that he wasn’t the cause of her happiness.

“But thirty seven?” Anya asked, skepticism lacing her words.

“It’s true!” Willow cried. “I was there! Xander sucked down thirty seven!”

The giggles of the potentials reached Spike’s ears. Silently he leaned forward. He wanted to know what exactly droopy boy had sucked thirty seven of.

“What are you girls giggling about?” Spike could hear the Whelp’s muffled voice as he stomped into the kitchen. Spike suspected the boy walked that way in hopes of disturbing Spike. Too bad he had no proof.

“Willow was just telling us about the time you sucked thirty seven…” Dawn answered, chortled.

“Shut up!” Came Xander’s squawked reply. “Wills! I can’t believe you told them about that!”

“It’s not that bad Xander.” Willow seemed to be trying to sooth Xander’s fragile ego. Holding back an unmanly giggle of his own, Spike leaned closer to the door hoping to hear the rest of the conversation.

“But Will!” Xander’s shrill whine sounded over the girl’s laughter. “It was thirty seven…” The laughter grew louder, unfortunately drowning out the rest of Xander’s words.

“Fine! But the next time you do something stupid I’m going to make sure everyone knows about it!”

Before anyone could say anymore, Buffy broke the group up. Apparently play time was over. To Spike’s annoyance he never did find out what Xander had done.