I have to admit it is your account and it will be your responsibility if your friend does anything on that account that may get you both in trouble one day, but with this situation I am not to sure on how to help. Have you given the account to your friend already because it could be possible they changed some of the settings to the account so that you could not access it again. If not your account may have been deleted. I would need to hear a bit more on the situation to try and help a bit more.
Was the email activated?
It has happened before that if the account was not activated, the account disappears.
I am not sure if this is the case, still.
Happened to a friend a long time ago.