A month and Elena was trying to make sense of just how she felt. It was fairly obvious that she was physically incapable of being on the boards without finding someone hurting and needing advice, or comfort or just someone to listen. Maybe it was just the timing, but really, it probably didn't help. Only she had recognized that she was starting to get overwhelmed, that she needed to step back. And knowing that Jacen had friends and family who could better be there for him because Elena wasn't the one to tell someone a healthy way to deal with losing someone, it was easier for her to just step back and try to go back to what she was trying to do. Which was trying to figure out her own problems.
Still, she was worried about Jacen. About Anakin. And Tahiri. She had seen Jacen's post and while he seemed calmer, she knew he was still hurting, even if he tried to mask it, bury it. Which left her worrying about Tahiri and if she would now be able to step aside more, to not focus solely on Jacen. Not likely. Which meant she needed to keep an eye on that. Elena didn't want Tahiri to have everything explode on her from not worrying about her own well being. And Anakin, well, Anakin was trying to come to terms with Jacen and Tahiri. The changes that have to happen as life goes on. Her own suicide attempt. She worried that he wasn't going to talk to her about certain things because he didn't want to burden her but until she had proof, she couldn't call him on it. And he did need to make friends.
Either way, having dropped out of school temporarily for medical reasons (really, it was a good thing she was friends with doctors), Elena had more time to herself. She couldn't bury herself in her school work, to go about the 'normal' mask she always tried to maintain. It was supposedly a good thing. It gave her time to take the advice given on trying to find one thing to focus on at a time. And while she probably should finally come to terms with the deaths of her parents and thus the girl she once had been, Elena decided to work backwards when at all possible.
All things together, it was a good day though. The crushing weight of worry and guilt wasn't suffocating her. Maybe it was the fact that it was warmer out, the nights still were chilly the later it got, but it wasn't nearly as cold as it had been. Or maybe it was the fact she was mostly avoiding the boards so as not to get pulled into trying to overwork herself in worry again. Though most of the things were things she had nothing to say to in response, or like the case with Jacen, just not knowing what to say. He knew she was there if he needed to talk but she also knew he wanted space.
Letting out a sigh, the brunette turned a corner, hands stuffed in her pockets, mask of perfectly fine nineteen year old dropped. She didn't need people on the streets asking if she was okay as well. But this section of her walk home tended to be less occupied so she wasn't as worried. No one at home really questioned it anymore, though perhaps because they realized it was better this way as opposed to her suppressing everything.
Or she could see Buffy sitting on a bench. She hadn't talked with her, not this her anyway. Though Elena's last real interaction with any Buffy had been her return to Lawrence and nearly being staked in the graveyard. She should just keep moving on. Elena knew that. She had seen Buffy's posts, of course. Never knew what to say. So it wasn't like she knew her, and might not even know Katherine. Which would be good, Elena really wasn't looking to getting staked. But she also could see that she was lost. Not just physically. But emotionally, mentally. The lost that only another lost person could see. And like a moth to a flame, Elena instead headed to the bench, pulling her hands out of her pockets and offering a faint smile.