Does wearing contact lens make your eyes lighter?!

I have dark brown eyes and I've been wearing contact lenses for the past year and a half. My prescription expired a couple of months ago, so I haven't wore contacts since. My friends, however, keep asking me if I'm wearing contacts, and when I say no, they insist that I do. They say that my dark brown eyes are lighter and shiny looking. My sister even tells me that my eyes look weird now.

I looked at my eyes closer in the mirror, and I noticed that my eye color is somewhat faded, a lighter brown color, and shinier looking. My eyes don't hurt, and my vision is normal

For those of you who wear contacts daily, is your eye color a lighter shade than what it was originally?