Sweet Home Alabama

Lauren Roberts was riding in a car with her aunt, Daina Sancho, to Blockbuster one day last summer when Sancho said, “Lauren, I have something to tell you. I’m in love with I.V.”

Daina was a 41-year-old mother of two. I.V., the nickname for Irwin Vincent O’Rourke III, was only 13 years old. It was a good thing, Roberts said, that she wasn’t driving, because the news came as a shock.

“I told her to be careful,” said Roberts, a slender 17-year-old redhead and mother of a 1-year-old baby girl. “I didn’t want her to get in any trouble.” … Daina started acting much younger than she was.

She started using teen slang and got a thumb ring, Sancho said. She wore youthful clothing and started listening to teen music, according to Sancho and Roberts.

“She loves my friends and my friends adore her,” Roberts said, sitting on the stoop of her house one late morning in February … Only two other states — Kansas and Texas — allow 14-year-olds to marry with just parental consent.