She loves him—she'll always love him—but she doesn't want him anymore like she used to. She doesn't smile when she sees him, she doesn't miss him when he's gone. She can't remember the last time she wanted to kiss him.
It nearly breaks Elena's heart to realize this and she swears it almost comes undone when she says the words to Stefan.
He nods as if he understands, but Elena can see the look in his eyes.
"I don't blame you, Stefan," she whispers. Klaus, her mind tells her bitterly, it all goes back to Klaus.
She wipes away the tears and sniffles. Her lower lip trembles. Her hands reach out and grab his and he lets her, squeezing tightly back.
"You should blame me, Elena," he tells her, and she can hear the self-loathing and guilt in his voice. It makes her cry harder. "It was my fault—I did this to us."
She shakes her head. "We met, we talked, we loved, and it was epic; but, Stefan, eventually reality had to set in. We aren't the same people we were back then."
He looks at the ground, but his fingers grasp hers tighter.
"I don't want to let you go, Elena," he says brokenly.
She smiles through her tears. She makes a show of looking up, expecting his eyes to follow. When they do, she says sentimentally, "The sun hasn't come up yet."
His smile is just as broken as his voice, and there is so much pain and guilt and distance in his eyes and she is struck by just how different he truly is in comparison to the boy she met a year ago.
They end just as they began that night so long ago, the comet on its way; and later they'll both remember it all fondly.