Game aborted

What does it mean when a game has been aborted?  I challenged a player and, as white, made the first move but the other player never started and the game timed out.  I received an email that said, "Your game vs XXX has been aborted"  I've had other games time out but did not get an e-mail like this.  The game doesn't even show up on my game history.  

Your opponent must have either manually aborted (clicking the abort button before the 2nd move) or left the game (before the 2nd move).

I didn't know that was possible. Thanks. It was a 3 day per move game and I checked it with about 12 minutes left, so if that's what happened he must have caught it at the last minute.

A game is aborted after your opponent disconnects/times out before finishing the first move. You can also abort before making the first move. For example, you can abort here: 1. e4 (black to move) but you can't here: 1. e4 e5 (white to move)