There was always a chance Elena would end up meeting everyone, or at least knowing them/of them. She normally was an outgoing person, not so much as of late, but she did still reach out to people. There was the natural compassion, of course. But Elena found that people tended to keep to themselves more often than not. A month since Maleficent, and people seemed to no longer talk of the dragon that had shown up. People went back to their lives. Ignoring what they couldn't explain and so ignoring people who may seem out of place.
"Trying to see the stars."
A disbelieving brow was quirked because it was obvious to Elena that it was a lie. One she herself would have said. Always say she's fine, that way no one worries about her even as she fell apart. Those close to her knew she did that, knew not to believe her when she claimed to be fine. And because of that, she saw.
"Looked more like you were trying to figure out your place in this.... because you feel lost. Not just in all of... this, but life in general."
Elena Gilbert, will manipulate her words in order to help. Katherine said it and it was true. Some people needed straight to the point. Needed to not be given the chance to talk their way out of it. Maybe it was the fact that Elena could see so much of her own issues in Buffy, different yet the same. Felt maybe if she helped someone with that similar numb and lost feeling, that maybe she could help herself. It wasn't how she used to be, help everyone else because she couldn't help herself. This was just trying to look at something she struggled with objectively for someone else so she could do the same for herself.
Right?
"I'm Elena. I don't think I've met you this time."
She could have left off the 'this time', but she needed to find a subtle way to say that she was like Buffy, displaced and not of Lawrence. That she knew of the Apocalypse, the Seal and Lucifer.